Aurora Light Spaceplane
Two-stage-to-orbit reusable spaceplane taking off and landing like an aircraft from conventional runways, carrying up to 1,000 kg to orbit.
Technical specifications
- Payload capacity
- Up to 1,000 kg to orbit
- Suborbital/hypersonic payload
- Up to 10,000 kg
- Configuration
- Two-stage-to-orbit, reusable carrier + expendable upper stage
- Operations
- Horizontal takeoff and landing from conventional runways, no launch pad required
- Turnaround
- Under 24 hours mission preparation and turnaround
- System reusability
- 90-100% total system reuse
- Flight envelope
- Peak altitude >100 km, peak velocity Mach >10 (hypersonic mode)
- TRL
- 5-6 (scaled demonstrators built and flown, engine hot-fire tested)
About
Aurora is POLARIS Raumflugzeuge’s multipurpose spaceplane and hypersonic transport concept, built on more than 30 years of German and European spaceplane research originating at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Aurora combines aircraft and rocket-launcher technology in a single two-stage-to-orbit vehicle with an expendable upper stage: the reusable carrier stage takes off and lands horizontally on standard runways, eliminating the need for a dedicated launch pad.
The design targets a factor of 2-3 reduction in cost per kilogram compared to traditional expendable rockets, driven by 90-100% reusability of the overall system and use of eco-friendly propellants. Aurora can reach any orbital inclination, supports mission preparation and turnaround of under 24 hours, and offers full mission-abort capability with safe payload return, enabling reproducible experiment or training flights through rapid multi-flight turnaround.
Beyond small-satellite launch, Aurora is designed to serve at least five distinct use cases from a single airframe: orbital small-satellite launch, hypersonic reconnaissance and defense applications (exceeding 100 km altitude and Mach 10), medium-range high-value cargo transport (5-10x faster than conventional transport), and, with a human-rated upgrade, astronaut training and human spaceflight research.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
