The clippings file·2026
Dawn Aerospace reached a $335 million valuation in its latest raise
Dawn Aerospace was valued at $335 million after its latest round. It flies the Aurora, a rocket-powered spaceplane that takes off and lands from an ordinary runway, and in November 2024 Aurora passed Mach 1.1 at 82,500 feet over the Southern Alps, the first civil supersonic flight since Concorde.
We backed Dawn Aerospace because a spaceplane that takes off and lands from an ordinary runway points at aircraft-style reuse rather than single-use rockets, and the team proved the hard part in the sky in 2024. Led by Stefan Powell, the company closed a $25M Series B in June 2026 to scale both the aircraft and the satellite propulsion units it already ships. A launch market that rewards flight rate and fast turnaround is the right market for two businesses on either side of the launch.