German defence ministry asks startup to build hypersonic spaceplane

Germany’s armed forces have commissioned Bremen-based startup Polaris to develop a two-stage, fully reusable hypersonic space plane — and given the team just three years to build it.  Dubbed Aurora, the 28-metre-long aircraft will be part rocket, part plane — designed to take off and land on a runway but also blast through the atmosphere and place payloads up to 1-ton in low-Earth orbit.  Under the contract, the startup will design, build, and flight test the spaceplane. The aircraft will serve as a testbed for hypersonic flight and defence research. It could be used as a small satellite carrier if…

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