The German Government has awarded Polaris a contract to develop a reusable hypersonic vehicle that will be used for testing hypersonic weapons and to transport satellites into orbit.
The contract from Germany’s Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) funds just the design of the reusable hypersonic vehicle. It also includes follow-on options for manufacturing and flight-testing of the full-size vehicle.
The two-stage, horizontal take-off and fully reusable hypersonic vehicle’s main purpose will be to serve as a hypersonic testbed and experimental platform for weapons and scientific research. Such a vehicle would be similar to US-based Stratolaunch’s Talon reusable hypersonic test vehicle.
However, the vehicle could be used as a small-satellite launcher when using an expendable upper-stage, as a secondary function said Polaris.
“We are proud of the continuous trust of Bundeswehr in our competencies and are looking forward to an exciting and highly ambitious project,” said the company.
Polaris Spaceplanes was founded in 2019 to develop a multipurpose spaceplane and hypersonic transport system called Aurora. Since then, the company has been testing progressively larger demonstrators, the latest being a pair of 5m (16ft) -long vehicles called MIRA II and MIRA III.
Polaris has also been developing an aerospike rocket engine, AS-1 for use in Aurora. After successful ground testing, the company completed an in-flight ignition of the engine and ran it for three seconds last year on the MIRA II demonstrator.
Further flight testing of the AS-1 expected this year.
Aerospike engines are an alternative design to the traditional bell-shaped rocket engine shape which offers more efficiency and power. Although the aerospike engine has been developed by several space programs since the 1950s, problems with cooling and structural complexity has prevented its use.
Several aerospace companies around the world including USA-based Stoke Space, India’s SpaceFields and Germany-based Pangea Aerospace and Polaris.
