Meet Ravn X, a fully autonomous, air-launched rocket for small satellites

An Alabama-based startup unveiled a launch system unlike any other Thursday in Jacksonville, Florida.

The company is called Aevum, and so far it has operated largely in the background. But now he’s ready to show some material, and it starts with the first stage of the “Ravn X” launch system. This autonomous aircraft and launcher is 24 meters long and has a wingspan of 18 meters. It has a gross take-off mass of 25,000 kg – enormous for an unequipped aerial vehicle.

Also, Ravn X is watching really tablecloth. Without a pilot on board, the drone can shoot significantly higher G-loads and steeper climb paths by releasing a rocket at altitudes between 10 and 20 km.

“We say our aircraft is a first step because it is actually contributing to Delta V,” Jay Skylus, founder and CEO of Aevum, said in an interview with Ars.

It’s physics

A physicist by training, Skylus founded Aevum in June 2016 after a few years at NASA and several commercial space companies, including Boeing and Firefly Aerospace. His company currently has around 180 full-time employees and has so far led around five rounds of angel fundraising. It aims to launch its first orbital mission in 2021.

Launching with an airplane-like first stage is key to developing a truly responsive launch, he said, as planes can take off in varying weather conditions from multiple locations. The Ravn X’s first stage, he said, can fly from any 1 mile runway.

However, existing air launch systems – Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus thruster and Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne vehicle – actually start with a negative Delta V, despite launching their rockets at an altitude of around 10 km, Skylus said. . This is because once the rocket is released from the plane, it takes several seconds for the plane’s pilots to pull away to a safe distance, and the moment the rocket fires its engines, it accelerates toward Earth. .

“When you do this analysis, you end up finding that the ground launch is superior to any type of manned aerial launch platform,” Skylus said. “We thought it wouldn’t work. There was no lasting solution. Physics didn’t favor that, so we have to find something else.”

This led the company to its concept of a self-sustaining first step. After its unveiling, this vehicle will begin a flight test campaign, with taxi tests, full avionics integration, a flight termination system, and more. This first model will serve as a “workhorse” for the test campaign, and Skylus has said the plan is to bolt its engines to a second airframe for a launch campaign.

Rocket engine testing

Even as he finalized the first stage of the Ravn X, Aevum developed a rocket capable of carrying 100 kg in a solar synchronous orbit of about 500 km. This rocket has two liquid fuel engines for its main stage, each with 5,000 pounds of thrust and a single top stage engine. These engines have been hot tested beyond their total burn time, Skylus said, and have undergone qualification and acceptance testing.

Ravn X and the launcher use Jet-A fuel, available at nearly every airport in the United States, as the propellant. Compared to the RP-1, this results in a 1-2% penalty on rocket engine performance, but the key is to provide responsiveness. “SeaI don’t want to be in a position where we have to have fuel delivered, “Skylus said. Initially, the company will fly missions from Spaceport Cecil to Jacksonville International Airport.

The US military seems definitely interested in the concept. Lt. Col. Ryan Rose, head of the Small Launches and Targets Division of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, attended Thursday’s deployment. He described the company’s efforts as “bold” and “innovative”.

Additionally, Aevum claims to have secured more than $ 1 billion worth of launch contracts over the next decade, including the Air Force’s ASLON-45 mission, currently targeted for the first launch of Ravn X.

Ad image by Aevum