Germany has awarded a landmark contract to Polaris Spaceplanes to develop a fully reusable, two-stage hypersonic test vehicle. Under the Hypersonic Test and Experimentation Vehicle (HYTEV) program, the platform is slated to be flight-ready by the end of 2027, creating a unique European asset for defense research, scientific experimentation, and potential reconnaissance missions at the edge of space.
In a significant step for European aerospace, the German Bundeswehr has placed its trust—and funding—into a bold new concept. The company Polaris Spaceplanes has been contracted to bring its two-stage, reusable spaceplane design from concept to flight test in a remarkably short timeframe. This isn’t just another rocket launch; it’s an attempt to create a versatile, runway-based system that operates like a jet, flies at hypersonic speeds, and touches the void of space. The product, known as HYTEV, is being built to solve a critical problem: the lack of affordable, reusable, and frequent European-led access to hypersonic flight conditions and the suborbital environment for testing new technologies.
So, how will it work? The basic function of the system is elegantly simple in concept but complex in execution. A larger carrier aircraft, equipped with turbofan engines, will take off horizontally like a conventional jet. This first stage will carry a rocket-powered upper stage to a high altitude before releasing it. That upper stage will then ignite its engine, accelerating to hypersonic speeds (Mach 5+) and potentially crossing the Kármán line into space, all before returning to a runway landing. This two-stage-to-sky approach promises flexibility. The upper stage can be configured as a pure testbed for hypersonic experiments or even as a small satellite launcher, reportedly capable of delivering up to 1,000 kilograms to low-Earth orbit.
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A key driver of this ambitious project is Polaris’s parallel work on breakthrough propulsion. The company has been advancing its linear aerospike rocket engine, designated the AS-1. This type of engine is theoretically more efficient across a wide range of altitudes, making it ideal for a vehicle that transitions from thick atmosphere to near-vacuum. Polaris has already conducted in-flight ignition tests using smaller demonstrator vehicles like MIRA II and MIRA III, proving core aspects of the technology. The integration of this engine will be crucial to HYTEV’s performance.
However, the project faces a formidable limitation: time. The contract calls for the platform to be flight-ready by the end of 2027, a challenging deadline for developing, integrating, and certifying such a complex and novel aerospace system. Moving from subscale demonstrators to a full-size, fighter-jet-comparable vehicle that must safely carry payloads for institutional clients is a monumental engineering leap to accomplish in just a few years.
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If successful, the overall summary and value of HYTEV is immense. It would provide Germany and its European partners with a sovereign, reusable testbed for next-generation technologies. This includes materials for hypersonic flight, advanced sensors, and propulsion systems. In a secondary role, it could function as an agile, responsive spaceplane for reconnaissance, highlighting its dual-use nature. As Polaris stated, a contract for a directly comparable system has likely never been awarded to a European entity before, marking a major vote of confidence.
The innovator behind the overarching vehicle concept and the company driving the vision is Polaris Spaceplanes, while the engineers tackling the profound technical challenges are the teams developing the AS-1 aerospike engine and integrating the complex stage-separation and flight control systems. Their combined effort aims to deliver a system that could reshape Europe’s strategic and technological capabilities in high-speed flight.
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Reported by the company, this contract signals Germany’s serious commitment to advancing hypersonic and reusable space access capabilities. In a geopolitical landscape where such technologies are increasingly pivotal, HYTEV represents not just a test vehicle, but a statement of ambition. The race to the upper atmosphere is heating up, and Europe now has a new, agile contender on the runway.
