“Whoooo!,” exclaimed Brenda Rolls, chair of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority, after the board approved a contract to make Oklahoma the U.S. home of a European-based spaceplane.
Netherlands-based Dawn Aerospace reached out to locate its onl y U.S. operation at the Burns Flat Spaceport.
“By many metrics, the Mk-II will be the highest-performance vehicle ever to take off from a runway. It will fly faster than an SR-71, and climb faster than an F-15, and to higher altitudes than any aircraft before it,” declared the company website.
The company explained the aircraft would have the performance of a rocket but is designed to operate as an aircraft. It would be certified as an aircraft, fly out of any sealed 1000m runway and be certified to fly in nonexclusive airspace.
Rolls, during a discussion on Friday before the board voted 5-0 in support of the agreement, called it a “really cool opportunity.”
She further said, “Dawn is very unique. This is a key step for state of Oklahoma to making a commit ment to space.”
Craig Smith, executive director at OSIDA was equally excited.
“Today marks the next step in a very long progression toward accessing space from Oklahoma,” he said.
Founded in 2017, Dawn intends to use the spaceport as a central U.S. location from where it can carry out research into suborbital flights.
Board member Deirdre Gurry, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel with more than 20 years of aviation experience voted for the agreement.
“This will make a profit of this but also move Oklahoma forward in the area of suborbital and micro-gravity research. It also has national secu rity and defense capabilities.”
A spokeswoman for Dawn told the board prior to the vote that the company was excited to locate in Oklahoma.
“We look forward to being here,” she said. “Nobody does this kind of research in the U.S. and the world. No one has a vehicle like this.”
Space board member Michael Schulz called it a v ery, very exciting day.
“This sets up a great future,” he said.