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FLY YOUR EXPERIMENT
TO SPACE IN 2027!

Suborbital Spaceplane Challenge

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This spaceplane challenge is brought to you by The State of Oklahoma, proudly flying the Aurora suborbital spaceplane from Infinity One Oklahoma Spaceport. T&Cs apply.

Suborbital Spaceplane
Challenge

          The State of Oklahoma's Suborbital Research & Academic Competition​

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25

FLIGHTS TO
BE WON

$5 Million

OF FLIGHT VALUE TO BE WON

​​Test payloads in microgravity, high altitude, and Mach 3.7 boost-glide missions.

Final number of missions and allocations are subject to vehicle availability, regulatory approval, and campaign scheduling.

Calling for Science and Research Interest in:

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Register interest here.

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CHALLENGE

Secure a Flight Opportunity on Aurora

The Suborbital Spaceplane Challenge is a competition that will offer U.S.-based research institutions the opportunity to engage with Dawn Aerospace on designing, testing, and flying their payloads aboard Aurora. â€‹

​

Selected winners will be able to fly payloads of

  • up to 15 kg (33 lbs),

  • to altitudes approaching 100 km (328,000 ft),

  • with up to 127 seconds of microgravity.

​​​​​​

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Competition Details

DAWN AEROSPACE

What Dawn Aerospace
Will Provide:

  • ​Flight opportunity (suborbital, boost-glide or custom profile)

    • Up to 5 flights per flight submission

  • Mission planning and trajectory design

  • Payload integration interface

  • Media kit

​

​

UNIVERSITY / RESEARCH INSTITUTION

What You Need To Provide

  • ​Designing and funding your payload hardware

  • Shipping payload to Oklahoma

  • On-site personnel (if required)

  • Insurance and institutional compliance

  • Integration readiness documentation

  • Meeting all safety and interface requirements

  • Participants are responsible for ensuring their payload complies with all applicable laws, safety requirements, and export control regulations.

​​​

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Eligibility​

  • The lead applicant must be a university or research institution based in the State of Oklahoma.

  • Collaboration for out-of-State university or research institution is encouraged, whereby out-of-State parties can participate via partnering with an Oklahoma-based lead institution.

  • ​U.S. federal laboratories may participate only as collaborators, not as lead applicants, and must partner with an Oklahoma-based lead institution.

  • Undergraduate and postgraduate teams welcome.

  • Must demonstrate credible hardware integration capability ​​

  • Participants must comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including export control laws (e.g., ITAR, EAR).

  • Dawn Aerospace reserves the right to reject any submission at its sole discretion.

Who can apply:

  • Universities/Colleges

  • Research institutions / labs

  • Faculty

  • Student teams

  • Individual students​

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Preference will be given to proposals that: 

  • Demonstrate flight-readiness by Q2 2027

  • Show prior experience integrating hardware on flight systems

  • Present operational maturity

  • Leverage Aurora’s repeat-flight capability

What you could fly/test: 

  • Microgravity experiments with repeatable access to ~2 minutes of reduced gravity

  • High-altitude sensing or atmospheric science approaching 100 km

  • Lunar or planetary simulation hardware

  • Space tech components before orbital deployment

  • Boost-glide instrumentation

  • Rapid-iteration payload concepts that benefit from multiple flights

Vehicle Overview​

  • Altitudes approaching 100 km (328,000 ft)

  • Up to 127 seconds of microgravity

  • Mach 3.7 boost-glide profiles

  • ~4-hour turnaround between flights

​​

Location​

  • Flying from Infinity One Oklahoma Spaceport

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Submission Criteria​

  • Scientific or technological merit

  • Technical feasibility

  • Payload/mission readiness 

  • Integration maturity

  • Commercial application (optional but encouraged)​

Payloads must comply with Aurora interface constraints

​

  • Maximum mass: 12 kg (26.5 lbs) - allowing contingency of 3 kg (6.5 lbs) during detailed development.

  • Volume: 250 × 250 × 250 mm (9.8 × 9.8 × 9.8 ")

  • Power: 5V / 12V / 28V buses

  • No hazardous materials

  • No weapons, classified payloads, or defense systems

  • No deployment or separation mechanisms

  • Closed hatch only

​

Radio transmitters subject to approval.

​​

See submission kit for more details

Submission Section

​Key Dates

  • Submission deadline - 5:00 PM CDT 25th Sept 2026

  • Finalists Announced: 23rd October 2026

  • Selected winners Announced: 13th November 2026

  • Payload Flight-Ready Deadline: 6th Sept 2027

​​

Dates subject to change. Updates will be made via Dawn Aerospace's website.​

Competition now open! Apply below. 

​

SUBMISSION KIT

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​Information included

  • Challenge overview;

    • Key dates​,

    • Payload information,

  • Requirements and Evaluation;

    • Eligibility,

    • Criteria,

  • Submission Form Questions - Preview,

  • Payload and Mission Ideas,

  • FAQ,

  • Terms and Conditions,

  • and more.

​​

MISSION USER GUIDE

​This Mission User Guide (MUG) presents all key information for flying missions with Dawn Aerospace’s Aurora flight service.

 

Information included

  • Vehicle overview,

  • Flight profiles,

  • Power, telemetry and vehicle data,

  • Environments​ Missions support.

​​

Website submission anchor

NOW OPEN

READY TO APPLY

​Online Application form​​​

  • All questions & T&Cs are in the Submission Kit

  • Sign in with any Gmail account (contact details can be university / institution for main correspondence)

  • Application form auto saves as you go

​

Contact: okcomp@dawnaerospace.com

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This challenge is proudly brought to you by the State of Oklahoma.

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