In May 2025 a rocket lifted off from the Texas desert and burned for 32 seconds. That was the whole flight. It was also the first time anyone had flown a rotating detonation rocket engine on an actual vehicle. Venus Aerospace, the startup behind it, has now closed a $90 million Series B.
Venus was founded in 2020 by Sassie and Andrew Duggleby, who serve as CEO and CTO. The original pitch was a clean hypersonic airliner — something that could cross Mach 5 without the emissions profile of older supersonic designs, putting New York to London inside an hour. The engineering was only half the problem. An airliner like that needs regulators and a market that do not exist yet.
The pivot came right after that test flight. "The moment we flew it, the world came back and said, you have a working RDRE, can you sell it to us," Duggleby said. The buyer that showed up first was not an airline. It was defense — hypersonic weapons and missile propulsion, where a proven engine has immediate value. Venus followed the demand.
Why the engine is different
A conventional rocket engine burns propellant inside a chamber at roughly constant pressure. An RDRE burns it with a detonation wave that travels continuously around an annular channel at supersonic speed. You get more thrust from the same propellant, and the engine itself has fewer moving parts, which helps with both reuse and manufacturing cost.
None of this is a new idea. RDREs have been studied since the 1960s and stayed stuck at the bench-test stage for decades. Flying one is what changed the conversation, and it is what the Series B is really pricing.
Who put money in
Mercury Fund led the round. Lockheed Martin Ventures, MESH, PEAK6, Draper Associates, Starboard Star Venture Capital, and Green Sands Equity all participated. Lockheed showing up on the cap table is the part worth noting — a prime contractor investing directly is a stronger signal about defense adoption than any press release.
The money goes toward two things. First, extending burn time from the current 32 seconds to somewhere between 6 and 15 minutes. Second, a larger test stand in Texas, backed in part by the Texas Space Commission.
The part that stings a little
A company that set out to build a clean airliner found its first real customer in weapons. That is not a cautionary tale so much as how validation works: prove the hardware, and the market decides what it is for. Hypersonic weapons, a replacement for solid rocket motors in missile propulsion, eventually launch vehicles — the road in front of an RDRE looks wider than the one Venus originally mapped out.
Whether it ever gets back to the airliner is a separate question, and probably a slower one.
Top comments (0)