Very Large New Aircraft

Rory, here is something right in line with your interests.

I have been following the development of a new approach to launching spacecraft. Orbital Sciences, a company I sold earth sensors to years ago, pioneered the idea of building a small rocket launcher that started its mission strapped to the bottom of a big aircraft like a B-52. Once the plane was at high altitude, far out over the water where no one on the ground would get hurt if something went wrong, and flying in the right direction, the rocket was released and fired up. The booster carried the attached spacecraft up to orbital speed and altitude and released it. The aircraft essentially did the work of the massive first stage of a typical rocket launcher. And, it was totally reusable.

A new company called Stratolaunch Systems, owned by a software billionaire (Paul Allen, one of the folks who founded Microsoft) is building a “mother ship” that can lift a much larger booster rocket than the earlier Orbital Sciences vehicle could handle. It is a monster, built by connecting the parts of two old 747s together at the wing. Here is a picture of that aircraft during ground tests. It will fly for the first time, soon.

This diagram compares the new Stratolaunch aircraft with some of the other giants of the sky.