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Companies

Venus Aerospace

Rotating detonation rocket engines for hypersonic flight

Raised to date

$63M

of $100M offered across 1 Form D filing

Still open
$37M
Investors
39
Last filed
May 4, 2026

About

Venus Aerospace is a Houston-based propulsion company developing rotating detonation rocket engines for space, defense, and high-speed flight. Founded in 2020, it completed the first U.S. flight test of a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE), which the company describes as the first fundamental improvement in rocket engine technology in over 60 years. It is pairing that engine with an air-breathing detonation ramjet so a vehicle can take off from a conventional runway and cruise at hypersonic speed without a rocket booster.

Detonation-based combustion delivers higher efficiency than conventional rocket engines from a compact, reusable design built with standard materials, which is what lets Venus target defense and commercial systems at a cost point legacy propulsion cannot reach.

Funding

  • EquityFiled May 4, 2026Form D
    $63M/ $100M

Product

Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE)

Rocket propulsion system

A rocket engine that burns propellant through a continuously rotating detonation wave rather than steady-state combustion, delivering higher efficiency in a compact, scalable package. Venus flew it in the first U.S. flight test of an RDRE.

  • Detonation-based combustion for efficiency beyond conventional rocket engines
  • Compact and scalable architecture adaptable across thrust classes
  • Built from standard materials with a comparatively simple design

Built for

Defense primes and government programs needing hypersonic propulsion, plus space launch and commercial high-speed flight operators

People on file