Stefan Powell - Dawn Aerospace

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace, a company developing an innovative spaceplane as well as satellite thrusters fueled by “green” propellant.

Dawn Aerospace is based in Christchurch, New Zealand, with offices in Delft, The Netherlands and New York City. The company builds thrusters for both small satellites and CubeSats and is flight testing a spaceplane that can operate from standard airports to deliver satellites to orbit.

Dawn’s B20 thruster achieves performance equal to that of those using hydrazine propellants by using a unique, green-propellant combination, nitrous oxide and propylene. Having delivered this technology to both CubeSats and Small Satellites, Dawn is demonstrating this technology can be applied to satellites of all sizes.

Using nontoxic propellants is naturally far less risky than using something like hydrazine, which is toxic at extremely low concentrations – 40 parts per million. Dawn’s green propellants are great for the environment but can also save the satellite operator about $500,000 per satellite by eliminating the safety precautions required to store and handle hydrazine.

Dawn Aerospace Aurora Mk-II Spaceplane

The Dawn Mk-II Aurora is designed for multiple flights per day to 100 km (66 mile) and above. Taking off and landing from standard airports, alongside normal aircraft, this vehicle merges the world of rockets and aviation. The Aurora, a sub-scale suborbital vehicle, has been built to demonstrate Dawn’s core technology for daily access to space. It is the latest vehicle of a series that will one day deliver satellites and assets to, and return them from, space. The vehicle’s 3U payload is capable of hosting scientific experiments. The next vehicle in Dawn’s series, the Mk-III, will be based on this design, but much larger and capable of delivering 250 kg (≈550 pound) satellites to orbit.

How does what happens in space affect your everyday life? The Ex Terra podcast is dedicated to introducing you to many of the interesting people involved in the commercial space industry and taking you behind the scenes with many of the companies making significant contributions to the new space economy. The podcast is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Overcast, Pocketcasts and Radio Public.

00:00 - Start
01:09 - About Dawn Aerospace
02:29 - Why a Spaceplane?
05:09 - Challenges of a Spaceplane
06:34 - Certification?
09:37 - Spaceplane propulsion
11:33 - Stefan Powell's background
13:15 - Regulation
15:16 - Typical Mission
19:45 - Spacecraft propulsion
22:51 - Dawn vs. AFRL Green propellant
25:28 - Thruster systems
28:29 - Dawn vs Virgin Galactic
30:38 - Mark III timeline?
32:13 - What do you see in Space Commerce over the next 10-15 years?
33:15 - Wrap up