Rocket-launching drone ready to take satellites into orbit
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/rocket-launching-drone-ready-take-satellites-orbit
Aevum’s RAVN-X is a drone system that carries satellites high in the atmosphere, where a rocket takes over.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s the RAVN-X—a rocket-launching drone designed to send small satellites to orbit without a pilot or a launchpad. Aerospace startup Aevum unveiled the first flight-ready model today, in advance of the system’s first mission: a 2021 launch for the U.S. Space Force, to take place after flight testing.