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A private rocket launching startup unveiled its fully autonomous drone designed to drop a rocket into the air that shoots small satellites into orbit without a launch pad.
Alabama-based Aevum has deployed its Ravn X Autonomous launcher at the Cecil SpacePort launch facility in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday.
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The 80-foot aircraft has a wingspan of 60 feet, is 18 feet tall, and is the world’s largest unmanned aircraft (UAS) by mass, weighing 55,000 pounds.
The fully autonomous aircraft is 70% reusable and is expected to be 95% reusable in the future. The craft flies like a typical airplane and can take off from any one-mile runway, eliminating the expensive infrastructure that comes with a launch pad.
Once the Ravn X reaches the correct location and altitude, it releases a rocket that launches a payload of around 220 pounds into low Earth orbit. After delivering the payload, the aircraft lands and parks in a hangar.
The company says the plane is designed to place satellites in space as fast as every 180 minutes.
“US leaders have identified the critical need for extremely rapid access to low earth orbit,” Jay Skylus, founder and CEO of Aevum, said in a statement.
“With our stand-alone technologies, Aevum will cut the time to launch from years to months, and when our customers ask for it, to minutes. This is necessary to improve life on Earth. It is necessary to save lives, ”he said.
The company has won over $ 1 billion in government contracts. The Space Force hired Aevum to complete its first small satellite mission, ASLON-45. The mission will improve “real-time threat alerts,” the agency said.
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