Ravn-X

Ravn-X (Mock-Up) [Aevum]

Ravn-X is a small air-launched orbital launch vehicle developed by Aevum Space. It consists of a autonomous drone aircraft carrying a two stage expendable launcher.

No concrete information on configuration and schedule is currently available. The Ravn-X is designed to put an 100 kg payload into a sun synchronous orbit.

The autonomous drone aircraft will be capable of high subsonic velocities (not supersonic, as originally anounced).

The expendable launch vehicle is a two stage configuration with both stages using Kerosene and LOX as fuel. Stage one uses two engines, while stage two uses one. Both stages appear to use the same engines. Based on illustrations on the company's website, It has been speculated, that the vehicle is powered by Hadley engines by Ursa Major Technologies (not confirmed).

The planned launch site is Cecil Field Airport near Jacksonville, Florida.

A future development is the enlarged Ravn launcher with a supersonic autonomous drone aircraft, which will be capable to put 300 kg into orbit.

USAF has contracted in 2019 with Aevum Space for the launch of the ASLON-45 mission consisting of multiple CubeSats, which was originally assigned to the now defunct Vector Space Systems.

In December 2020 Aevum rolled out a mock-up of the Ravn-X carrier plane (although claimed to be a real prototype), but no further activities have been noticed so far. It is doubtful, that any real hardware has been produced so far. By August 2024, all activities seem to have stopped.

Note: This vehicle is listed here solely because of the ASLON-45 launch contract. The author has serious doubts about the credibility of the project, given the lack of meaningful progress and several significant red flags.