 | |
| Company type | Private incorporated company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 2016; 8 years ago |
| Founder | Richard Humphrey, Livingston L. Holder Jr., Jeff Feige, Curtis Gifford |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington |
| Website | radianaerospace |
Radian Aerospace is an American aerospace company based in Seattle, Washington. The company is developing a horizontal take-off/horizontal landing, single-stage-to-orbit, fully reusable spaceplane concept called Radian One.
Radian was founded in 2016. [1] In January 2022, the company closed a $27.5 million seed round led by venture capital fund Fine Structure Ventures. [2]
In September 2024, Radian Aerospace completed ground tests of its subscale prototype flight vehicle called PFV01 in Abu Dhabi and begins flight tests. [3] [4]
Radian released their latest vehicle design of Radian One to the public in April 2024. [5] Radian One is designed to carry up to five crew members to low Earth orbit, with as much as 5,000 pounds of payload going up and 10,000 pounds going down. The delta-winged plane will be launched from a rocket-powered sled. Radian claims it will be able to land on any 10,000 ft (3,000 m) runway and fly again in 48 hours. [6]
The company is focusing on research, space manufacturing, terrestrial observation, and rapid global delivery to Earth destinations. Radian has penned launch agreements with governments and commercial firms. [6]
The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes. It belongs to the class of altitude compensating nozzle engines. Aerospike engines were proposed for many single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) designs. They were a contender for the Space Shuttle main engine. However, as of 2023 no such engine was in commercial production, although some large-scale aerospikes were in testing phases.
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