Venus Aerospace Unveils “Stargazer™,” Its Mach 9 Hypersonic Spaceplane

HOUSTON, JUNE 7th, 2022 - Venus Aerospace, a startup developing hypersonic aircraft, introduced the “Stargazer”, the company’s first conceptual vehicle design, at the Up.Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The Venus Vehicle Engineering Team has been working on this iteration since the company’s founding in 2020. Backed by leading Venture Capitalists and with $1M in government funding, Venus has since raised over $33M to build a Mach 9 hypersonic drone and Mach 9 space plane, both capable of one-hour global travel. 

The Venus Vehicle Engineering Team has been working on this iteration since the company’s founding in 2020. Backed by leading Venture Capitalists and with $1M in government funding, Venus has since raised over $33M to build a Mach 9 hypersonic drone and Mach 9 space plane, both capable of one-hour global travel.  

Venus has a dedicated and experienced team of aerospace, military and research and development veterans who are pushing the boundaries of high-speed transportation. Venus recently announced its $20M Series A, led by Prime Movers Lab. The team is maturing its three main technologies: a zero-emission next-generation rocket engine, innovative aircraft shape and leading-edge cooling, which allows the spaceplane to take off from existing spaceports, using existing infrastructure. 

Over the last year, Venus has scaled fast. Venus designed and built its tech demonstration engine, executed key experiments at hypersonic wind tunnels and propulsion test facilities throughout the U.S., and started a ground test campaign at Spaceport Houston.  Over the next year Venus will start subsonic and supersonic flight testing of a scaled drone. 

About Venus Aerospace
Venus Aerospace is an early stage, deep tech company. Founded by Sarah “Sassie” Duggleby and Dr. Andrew Duggleby, Venus aims to develop a Mach 9 hypersonic aircraft that will fly passengers around the world and back home in time for dinner. For more information, head to our website, www.venusaero.com

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Andrew Duggleby

CTO

Dr. Andrew Duggleby is the CTO and co-founder of Venus Aerospace, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander and an engineering professor. Before launching Venus, he was head of launch operations at Virgin Orbit where he led operational planning, mission control, telemetry, ground equipment, launch infrastructure, and payload operations teams. He also led a team of engineers and technicians to hotfire the first dual-mode 3D print (DMLS printed and DED cladded) rocket engine, in collaboration with NASA MSFC. Dr. Duggleby was a Mechanical Engineering Asst. Professor at Virginia Tech and Texas A&M. He founded Exosent Engineering with a former student, making ASME-rated hazardous transport trailers, and exited in 2015 to pursue his space passion. A Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, he has multiple deployments to Japan (shipyard repair), and multiple commanding officer tours of US-based reserve maintenance units. Would love to get more PhDs but his wife won’t let him.