SPACE reports, “Houston-based startup Venus Aerospace has completed the first-ever test flight of a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) in the United States. The launch took place on Wednesday (May 14) from Spaceport America in New Mexico. A small rocket equipped with Venus’ RDRE lifted off at 9:37 a.m. EDT (1337 GMT; 7:37 a.m. local time in New Mexico).”
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Tag: Venus Aerospace
Former Shuttle Commander Pam Melroy Joins Venus Aerospace After Groundbreaking RDRE Flight
SPACE reports former NASA deputy chief and shuttle commander Pam Melroy has joined Venus Aerospace’s board after its groundbreaking RDRE flight, bringing her “decades of experience” to help scale the startup’s propulsion technology.
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Venus Aerospace in Pursuit of Detonation-Powered Hypersonic Flight
Aviation Week reports, “Rotating detonation engines have huge potential for realizing efficient high-speed flight, but they are proving fiendishly difficult to get right. In the five short years since focusing on the concept, Andrew Duggleby, chief technology officer and co-founder of the pioneering hypersonic propulsion systems developer Venus Aerospace, says he has learned that five key steps are required to make a detonation engine work.”
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