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Auriga Space raises $6M to shoot rockets off an electromagnetic launch track


Auriga Space wants to reimagine launch by using electromagnetic forces.

With rockets, most of the weight is in the propellant, not the payload, and a huge portion of it is burned simply battling Earth’s gravity and atmosphere. Auriga will go to market first with hypersonic ground testing: this most recent direct-to-phase II Small Business Innovation and Research grant from AFWERX (the company’s second) will be used to commercialize an indoor, lab-scale track called Prometheus early next year, and an outdoor accelerator for full-scale hypersonic test articles called Thor. Customers tell Lai that the lack of affordable, on-demand test infrastructure is one of the main challenges in advancing hypersonic development.

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