Stratolaunch

Stratolaunch set up by the late Paul Allen(Co-founder of Microsoft) along with Burt Rutan (famous for his 'Scale composites' company including SpaceShip 1 the first private rocket to fly a man into space TWICE in one week to win an Xprize)

Stratolaunch CEO Jean Floyd

Scaled Dream Chaser

This Oct 2014 proposal is a smaller version of the 'Dream Chaser' (see below) to be launched by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen's Stratolaunch

The Stratolaunch carrier plane powered by six Boeing 747 engines "the largest aircraft ever constructed,"

Black Ice space plane, The 'scaled' version of the Dream Chaser will be able to carry three people into space or serve a variety of unmanned cargo or research missions.

Proposed Launch vehicles

Here are the four possible launch vehicles:

    1. Pegasus: This rocket, which is built by aerospace company Northrop Grumman, already has dozens of air-launched missions with other carrier craft under its belt. Pegasus will be able to haul payloads as heavy as 815 lbs. (370 kilograms), and it will take flight with the Stratolaunch plane for the first time in 2020 if current schedules hold, company representatives said. (The payload capacities given here and below are what each vehicle can tote to a circular orbit with an altitude of 250 miles, or 400 kilometers.)

    2. Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV): The MLV is a new rocket with a payload capacity of 7,500 lbs. (3,400 kg). Its maiden launch should come in 2022, Stratolaunch representatives said.

    3. Medium Launch Vehicle - Heavy: This brawnier version of the MLV is in early development. It will feature three booster cores and the ability to loft payloads as hefty as 13,200 lbs. (6,000 kg).

    4. Space Plane: This fully reusable vehicle will be able to haul payloads up and bring them back down to Earth, much as the U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane does. The Stratolaunch vehicle will be robotic at first, like the X-37B. But the company plans to eventually build a crew-carrying variant as well, Stratolaunch representatives said. The space plane will be able to launch medium-class payloads, and it'll be a few years before the vehicle takes flight; it's currently in the design-study phase, company representatives said.

First flight 13 April 2019

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