The Australia-based startup Hypersonix Launch Systems will use green hydrogen fuel supplied by BOC for its re-usable SPARTAN scramjet engines.
Hypersonix is developing a sustainable hypersonic vehicle powered by the SPARTAN scramjet engines, which use hydrogen as fuel. The vehicle should be used as a reusable launcher for satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The low-cost, reliable, reusable, and rapid turn-around launch of small satellites to LEO would be the first application of scramjets for space launch.
The company entered a framework agreement with the British-based gas provider BOC, which recently secured funding for the development of a Renewable Hydrogen Production and Refuelling pilot project in Bulwer Island near Brisbane, Australia.
“We’re very pleased to have found a strong clean hydrogen partner in BOC,” said Hypersonix CEO and co-founder David Waterhouse. “We both share a desire to bring the principles of the Green Space to the small satellite launch market, and this is something that sets us apart. We are determined to go to space, but in a way that is sustainable for our planet by design.”
In 2020, Hypersonix received an Accelerating Commercialisation Grant from the Australian Federal Department of Industry. In March 2021, the company announced it entered a research agreement with Boeing for the development of their vehicle.