Lockheed Martin Ventures invests in rocket propulsion startup Venus Aerospace

WASHINGTON — Rocket propulsion startup Venus Aerospace announced Oct. 22 that Lockheed Martin Ventures has taken a strategic stake in the company.

The deal comes as major Pentagon contractors, including Lockheed Martin, intensify efforts to accelerate hypersonic missile development amid growing competition from China and Russia, which have deployed operational hypersonic systems capable of evading U.S. missile defenses.

Venus Aerospace, based in Houston, Texas, has developed a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) — a propulsion system that uses a continuously rotating detonation shockwave to generate thrust, promising more efficiency than conventional rocket engines. The company completed the first U.S. flight test of a 2,000-pound-thrust RDRE in May , launching the engine on a sma