Bremen-based POLARIS Spaceplanes completed an initial flight test campaign of its MIRA II demonstrator between 25 and 27 October. The company is now preparing for the vehicle’s first rocket-powered flight.
Founded in 2019, POLARIS Spaceplanes is developing a multipurpose spaceplane and a hypersonic transport system called AURORA. In addition to providing hypersonic testing capabilities, the spaceplane, when equipped with an expendable upper stage, will be able to deliver payloads of up to 1,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit.
On the road to AURORA’s inaugural flight, the company has developed and tested a series of progressively larger and more powerful demonstrators, the latest being MIRA II. This five-metre-long vehicle is equipped with jet engines for take-off and landing and one of the company’s in-house developed AS-1 aerospike engines for rocket-powered flight.
POLARIS conducted the first three test flights of the MIRA II demonstrator at the Peenemünde Airport on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Over the three flights, the vehicle accumulated a total of 20 minutes of flight time and covered more than 50 kilometres.
On 25 October, POLARIS completed the first flight of MIRA II under jet power in a 180-kilogram, reduced-weight configuration. This initial test was used to “tune the flight controller.” On 26 October, the vehicle’s mass was increased to 199 kilograms for its second flight, which was used to begin testing its autopilot capabilities.
The third and final flight of the test campaign was conducted on 27 October with a vehicle mass of 218 kilograms, which included an “aerospike mass dummy.” Except for take-off and landing, the entire mission was flown by autopilot along a pre-programmed flight path. The flight path followed on this third flight is identical to the one planned for the vehicle’s first rocket-powered flight, which the company stated would “follow soon.”
According to POLARIS, the company will now complete the installation of the vehicle’s AS-1 aerospike engine ahead of its first rocket-powered flight.
