Graphic of Scout Space planned Morning Sparrow mission. Photo: Scout Space

Scout Space plans to fly a novel Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) space domain awareness (SDA) capability aboard a Dawn Aerospace suborbital spaceplane in an upcoming mission called “Morning Sparrow.” Scout announced Thursday that the company signed a flight agreement with Dawn in August that covers the initial demonstration and a series of future flights.  

The demonstration is scheduled for November 2024 from Tāwhaki National Aerospace Centre near Christchurch, New Zealand, on a Dawn Aerospace’s Mk-II Aurora spaceplane. The Mk-II Aurora will transport Scout’s twin Sparrow payloads to extremely high altitudes, reaching the stratosphere.

Scout Space said the Sparrow sensors will capture imagery, diagnostic, and environmental data throughout the mission. This demonstration will highlight the potential of deploying Scout’s secure space domain awareness solutions onboard future Dawn spaceplanes, providing sensor access to operating environments that are not well served by traditional space domain awareness solutions. 

Scout Space CEO Philip Hover-Smoot said this will be a “first of its kind” tactically responsive VLEO SDA demonstration that has potential for space defense. 

“This partnership with Dawn brings to the market something fundamentally new from two organizations dedicated to pushing the edge of the possible,” Hover-Smoot said. “Our successful demonstration of our novel tactically responsive VLEO SDA capability will pave the way for future advancements in space security and multi-domain Space Domain Awareness.”