Radian Aerospace

Radian Aerospace is an American aerospace startup founded in 2016 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was established by Richard Humphrey, Livingston L. Holder Jr., Jeff Feige and Curtis Gifford; Holder previously led Boeing's X-33 single-stage-to-orbit demonstrator programme. The company's goal is a fully reusable, horizontal-takeoff-and-landing spaceplane that reaches orbit without staging, rather than the vertical, expendable-stage launch vehicles that dominate the industry.

History and funding

Radian Aerospace closed a $27.5 million seed round in January 2022, led by Fine Structure Ventures, to fund development of its spaceplane concept. In September 2024 the company began ground and taxi tests of a subscale prototype flight vehicle, PFV01, as an early step toward validating the design before building a full-scale orbital vehicle.

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Radian Aerospace's principal programme is the Radian One, a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane intended to launch from a rocket-powered sled and land horizontally on a conventional runway. The company has also described a separate reusable reentry capsule for near-term hypersonic and spaceflight testing work while the spaceplane programme continues.