Spaceport America hosts groundbreaking rocket test flight

LAS CRUCES — Spaceport America was the site of a seminal moment in rocketry last week, when Texas-based Venus Aerospace conducted the first test flight of a rocket propelled by a new hypersonic system.

Venus successfully flew a rocket equipped with its rotating detonation engine designed to fly a vehicle up to six times the speed of sound, launching from a conventional runway. Liftoff was at 7:37 a.m. Mountain Time on May 14 from the Spaceport’s launch facilities in Sierra County, outside Truth or Consequences.

The technology achieves higher thrust with more efficient fuel consumption compared to fuel systems involving a combustion chamber. The company is aiming to achieve point-to-point hypersonic flight with vehicles that don’t require a rocket booster, envisioning future air passengers traveling from Los Angeles to Tokyo in under two hours.

“We’ve proven that this technology works — not just in simulations or the lab, but in the air,” the company’s CEO and co-founder, Sassie Duggleby, stated in a news release following the mission. “With this milestone, we’re one step closer to making high-speed flight accessible, affordable, and sustainable.”

Scott McLaughlin, the spaceport’s executive director, said in a statement that the successful flight demonstrated that “Spaceport America was created to make space history, and Venus Aerospace delivered a milestone moment for hypersonics today.”

The Spaceport’s anchor tenant, Virgin Galactic, is currently focused on producing a new line of space vehicles, with commercial flight service set to resume in the middle of 2026.

In the meantime, the Spaceport has focused on attracting new tenants and customers in various fields of aerospace research and development. They’ve also been focused on convincing state lawmakers, who have grown increasingly skeptical of Virgin Galactic’s prospects, that the spaceport itself — built with public money — is worth continued support via capital outlay and appropriations.

“Getting a rotating detonation rocket engine to the launchpad is an achievement few thought possible in such a short time,” McLaughlin continued. “We’re thrilled to host innovators like Venus, whose breakthroughs are redefining what’s possible in spaceflight.”