DLR's ATHEAt Flight Experiment Achieves Hypersonic Milestone Over Norway

DLR's ATHEAt Flight Experiment Achieves Hypersonic Milestone Over Norway
by Clarence Oxford
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Oct 09, 2025

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has successfully launched its ATHEAt flight experiment from Andoya, Norway, marking a major advance in reusable space transportation technology. The sounding rocket lifted off on 6 October 2025 at 10:45 local time, flying for approximately four minutes and surpassing Mach 9 for two of those minutes - conditions comparable to atmospheric re-entry.

During the mission, the rocket climbed beyond 30 kilometers in altitude, with onboard sensors capturing extensive data on aerothermal loads and structural performance. "With the ATHEAt flight experiment, we have succeeded in flying at high Mach numbers for much longer than in our previous projects," said project manager Ali Gulhan, who heads DLR's Supersonic and Hypersonic Technologies Department. "We have now reached a new milestone and collected unique data for further research and development."

More than 300 sensors - including infrared cameras, laser scanners, and radiation thermometers - were installed to record in-flight conditions. A DLR-developed modular acquisition system processed and transmitted the data in real time to ground stations at Andoya and DLR.

The payload section featured experiments on active cooling under extreme heat, alongside four deployable fibre-reinforced ceramic flaps that endured high-temperature stresses during operation. These flaps, manufactured using DLR's proprietary in-house ceramic processes, could form the basis of future control systems for reusable launch vehicles.

The 13.5-meter ATHEAt rocket used a two-stage propulsion design developed by DLR's Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA). The lower RED KITE stage - a DLR and Bayern-Chemie collaboration - was coupled with a Canadian 'Black Brant' upper stage to achieve sustained hypersonic flight along a shallow trajectory. A newly developed DLR sensor cube measured acceleration and rotation rates, guiding stage ignition and trajectory optimization.

"The conditions simulated in the ATHEAt flight experiment are comparable to those that heat protection systems on future reusable space transport systems will have to reliably withstand during re-entry," Gulhan noted. "With projects like ATHEAt, we are specifically working on closing this global technology gap."

ATHEAt's flight concluded with a controlled splashdown in the Norwegian Sea, completing one of DLR's most demanding and data-rich reusability test campaigns to date.