Courier & Interceptor Rating

The Aurora Mk II is unforgiving in the way only very fast ships are. At 1,450 km/s it is the quickest crewed vessel Halcyon has ever built, and it is flown by exactly one person. There is no colleague in the right-hand seat to notice a mistake, so the Courier & Interceptor Rating is built around one idea: you must become your own second pilot.

The course lasts 10 weeks and is deliberately simulator-heavy. Before you touch the real ship you will spend most of 120 simulator hours rehearsing high-energy approaches, drive trims, emergency shutdowns of the deuterium-helium-3 fusion core and the art of managing fuel when a single mistimed burn can cost you the margin to reach port. Single-pilot resource management, fatigue planning and threat-and-error management take up a substantial share of ground school, because the leading cause of courier incidents is not mechanical failure but a tired pilot on the fourth day of an express run.

Flight training totals 55 hours in the 28-metre Aurora, based at our L5 Lagrange Station hangar and flown in partnership with Halcyon's pilot conversion team on Luna. The final phase is a supervised long-range sortie of several days towards Mars orbit, shadowed by an instructor in a second Aurora, followed by the type rating check ride itself.

Cohorts are tiny: six candidates and two instructors, which is why the course is currently waitlisted. Tuition is 142,000 credits. Applicants need a Commercial Pilot Licence (Orbital) and at least 400 hours as pilot in command. The next intake starts on 12 January 2188. Historically 84 per cent of candidates pass at the first attempt; those who do not are offered a free retest after additional simulator coaching.

Graduates hold the Aurora Mk II Type Rating and are much sought after by express courier firms. Note that we do not currently teach the Corvid Stealth Scout, which requires a security clearance outside the academy's scope.