Auriga Space aims to revolutionize space launches through its innovative launch track that utilizes electricity and powerful magnets. This method enables a small rocket to achieve hypersonic speeds before its engine ignites, thus minimizing propellant usage. The company highlights the huge inefficiency of conventional rockets, where only a small fraction of mass reaches space. Recent advancements in power electronics support the viability of this technology. Auriga has secured significant funding to develop its system architecture, which remains in the finalization stage.
"Less than 2% of the mass of the rocket is what gets into space," Auriga founder and CEO Winnie Lai explained in a recent interview. "So our ultimate goal here is to make space launch more efficient, and by increasing efficiency, we believe we can bring down the cost, and we can also enable much more frequent launches."
Auriga Space is aiming to change the launch game. Instead of a first-stage booster, the California-based startup is developing a launch track that will use electricity to power powerful magnets. Those magnets will accelerate a small rocket to over six times the speed of sound.
Electromagnetic launchers are not a new idea: Auriga's architecture is reminiscent to a rail gun or a maglev. But Lai argues that recent advancements in power electronics, especially being able to operate at higher voltages and higher powers, finally make the concept technologically and commercially viable.
The company is fueling its ambitions with a previously undisclosed $4.6 million seed round that closed at the beginning of the year and $1.4 million in new AFWERX and SpaceWERX contracts. The capital round was led by European firm OTB Ventures, with participation from Trucks Venture Capital and Seraphim Space.
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