Mach 1, Dawn Rises, with Stefan Powell (CEO of Dawn Aerospace)

This week on Pathfinder, we’re ready to kick off 2025 with our first episode back from a brief holiday hiatus. Joining us is Stefan Powell, co-founder and CEO of Dawn Aerospace—a company focused on building scalable, sustainable space transportation solutions. After cutting their teeth with an in-space propulsion business, Dawn is now pushing the boundaries with Aurora, a rocket-powered plane that recently breaking the sound barrier (or Mach 1).

In this episode, we explore:

• From Student Rocket Club to Thriving Venture: Stefan’s background and how his early rocketry experiences shaped Dawn’s mission.
• Satellite Propulsion: Why Dawn’s safer, scalable alternatives to traditional satellite fuel are gaining traction in the market—and how they enable near-term revenue.
• Aurora’s Breakthrough Flight: Hitting Mach 1.1, testing supersonic aerodynamics, and the path toward suborbital flight capabilities.
• Hypersonics & Beyond: Why government R&D and military programs are pouring billions into hypersonics research—and how Dawn plans to help solve the “access-to-test-time” gap.
• Aircraft-Like Space Access: Dawn’s long-term vision for truly rapid, reusable, runway-based vehicles that could revolutionize launch operations.
• Building for the Future, One Step at a Time: How Stefan thinks about scaling, capital efficiency, and bridging near-term commercial opportunities with an ambitious roadmap.

…and much, more.

 

• Chapters •

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:45 - Founding Dawn

00:06:33 - Core products

00:08:52 - Sustainability

00:11:25 - How Stefan got into the space industry

00:16:20 - What Stefan is developing with Aurora

00:19:09 - Recent flight

00:20:38 - Why is it important to go past Mach 1?

00:24:02 - Technical milestones before full orbital capabilities

00:26:43 - Hypersonics and building commercial ability

00:30:23 - Government customers

00:31:39 - Opportunities in hypersonic weapons?

00:33:02 - Payload capacity of first commercial launch vehicle

00:33:58 - Long-term scaling goals

00:37:15 - What is so difficult about building commercial hypersonic platforms?

00:42:05 - Most significant hurdles when it comes to scaling and manufacturing

00:44:32 - Building in New Zealand

00:46:38 - Revenue mix

00:48:15 - Capital efficiency

00:51:47 - Effect of Starship on the launch market

00:53:42 - What does success look like for Dawn over the next 10 years

00:56:25 - What Stefan has learned about being a CEO/Founder for 15 years

00:58:11 - Everything's on the table

 

• Show notes •

Dawn’s website — https://www.dawnaerospace.com/

Dawn’s socials — https://x.com/DawnAerospace

Stefan’s socials — https://x.com/Stefan__Powell

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

 

• About us •

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 19,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world.

Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing five media properties across multiple platforms:

1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern