Its reusable, rocket-powered Mk-II Aurora aircraft reached speeds ofMach 0.92 (967 km/h) at altitudes over 15km.
And its not stopping there.
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Some of these records have stood for over 50 years.
It plans to do this using a little suborbital aircraft and a relatively modest pot of private equity.
All other vehicles to fly that high have been rockets or spaceplanes.
A best of both worlds at least in theory.
Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo, a suborbital spaceplane designed for space tourism, came to a more dramatic end.
To date, there have been hundreds of spaceplane concepts but nothing commercially viable.
All of them, except for James, were rocket experts.
But they decided to build a plane anyway.
We could seeSpaceXmaking fantastic progress retrofitting reusability into the first stage Falcon 9.
We didnt have the deep pockets of Elon or our American VC-funded counterparts.
Dawn will certify the Mk-II Aurora as a plane, not a rocket.
Flying as an aircraft also allows the startup to fail fast and build quickly.
Dawns lean approach to tech development stands out in an industry dominated by billionaire-funded startups and deep-pocketed governments.
Nevertheless, its looking to do something quite remarkable given its limited cash runway.
Story bySion Geschwindt
Sion is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy.
