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Dawn Aerospace unveils their new spaceplane; the Dawn Mk-II Aurora

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  1. skybrian
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    From the article:

    From the article:

    The Mk-II Aurora will demonstrate the core technology for daily access to space in a subscale vehicle. It has a modest payload capacity, enough to bring scientific experiments to space, but too little for an orbital second stage. The later generation Mk-III will be based on the Mk-II design, but with a larger payload capacity. This will allow a 50-100kg satellite to be delivered to orbit. The Mk-III will deliver satellites into orbit using an expendable second stage. After releasing a satellite, the second stage burns up in the atmosphere and accounts for about 6 percent of the whole vehicle, making the whole system 94% reusable.