POLARIS Raumflugzeuge GmbH is a Bremen-based aerospace startup founded in 2019 by Dr. Alexander Kopp as a spin-off from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where Kopp spent a decade researching reusable space launch and hypersonic transport systems. The company is developing a family of reusable spaceplanes that take off and land horizontally from conventional airport runways — eliminating the need for dedicated launch infrastructure — and are designed for up to 200 reuses with a 24-hour turnaround.

Its primary product under development is Aurora, a 28-meter light spaceplane capable of delivering 1 tonne of payload to low Earth orbit and expected to make its first flight around 2028. Alongside Aurora, POLARIS is developing a heavy spaceplane targeted for the early 2030s. The company has validated its technology through a series of seven scaled flight demonstrators (including the MIRA and MIRA II series), logging over 250 test flights and 49 linear aerospike engine hot-fire tests. In October 2024, MIRA II achieved a world first: the in-flight ignition of a LOX/kerosene linear aerospike rocket engine.

POLARIS holds significant defense contracts with the German Bundeswehr. In January 2026, BAAINBw awarded it a contract to build and flight-test HYTEV (Hypersonic Test and Experimentation Vehicle), a fighter-sized, two-stage, fully reusable hypersonic research vehicle with a first flight planned for end of 2027. The company is also co-developing AirLAS with Diehl Defence — a missile-carrier drone system based on a MIRA variant equipped with IRIS-T air-to-air missiles. A second company site was opened at Peenemünde Airport in January 2025 to accelerate flight testing over the Baltic Sea.

As of mid-2025, the company had grown to around 105 team members and raised €12.4 million in private funding, complemented by approximately €11.8 million in customer contracts. Investors include Capnamic Ventures Bremen, Spacewalk VC, Dienes Holding, E2MC Ventures, Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Bremen, and angel investor Andreas Kupke.