A private rocket-launch startup unveiled its fully autonomous drone designed to drop a rocket in midair that shoots small satellites into orbit without a launchpad. Alabama-based company Aevum rolled out its Ravn X Autonomous Launch Vehicle at the Cecil SpacePort launch facility in Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday. America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. The 80-foot aircraft has a wingspan of 60 feet, stands 18 feet tall and is the world's largest Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) by mass, weighing 55,000 pounds.

This week, a company based out of Alabama called Aevum unveiled the Ravn X, a drone designed to carry and launch satellites into low-orbit. It weighs in at approximately 55,000 pounds when it's carrying a full payload, making it one of the heaviest unmanned aircraft in existence today. It also stands 18 feet tall, has a wingspan of 60 feet and looks like it came straight out of Macross Plus. The promise of the drone is that it can put a payload in low-earth orbit in approximately three hours, a fact Aevum claims will allow it to shorten lead times on satellite launches from years to months. It only needs about 1-mile of runway to get in the air, allowing it to take off from almost any commercial airport.

The world's first satellite launching drone, developed by a US-based space startup, will will be able to carry a new payload into orbit every 180 minutes, the firm claims. Aevum says the massive 80ft long drone, named the Ravn X, is fully autonomous, 70 per cent reusable, and can take off and land on runways as short as a mile long. Working in partnership with the US Space Force, the firm says it is'completely reimagining access to space' by focusing on autonomy and better logistics. The drone can take off from any runway to reach high altitude where it deploys a second stage that takes a small payload the rest of the way to space. After it has launched the second stage rocket into low Earth orbit, the drone flies itself back to its home runway, lands and then parks up in its hanger.

A space launch every three hours could soon be a reality. Alabama-based startup, Aevum, is testing a rocket-drone plane that can send small satellites into orbit from a normal runway. The firm claims that its fully autonomous system will drive down the cost of launches and make them as frequent as commercial flights. The rocket-drone plane will send small satellites into orbit from a normal runway. 'Ravn is designed to launch every 180 minutes,' Jay Skylus, Aevum's CEO and chief launch architect, told Space.com.