Stratolaunch to enable safer, less expensive space flight

Stratolaunch Systems will bring safer, less expensive space missions with its airborne launch program. (PRNewsFoto/Stratolaunch Systems)

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen announced today that he and aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan have reunited to develop the next generation of space travel. Allen and Rutan, whose SpaceShipOne was the first privately funded, manned rocket ship to fly beyond earth's atmosphere, are developing a revolutionary approach to space transportation: an air-launch system to provide orbital access to space with greater safety, cost-effectiveness and flexibility.

Only months after the last shuttle flight closed an important chapter in spaceflight, Allen is stepping in with an ambitious effort to continue America's drive for space. 

"I have long dreamed about taking the next big step in private space flight after the success of SpaceShipOne, to offer a flexible, orbital space delivery system," Allen said. "We are at the dawn of radical change in the space launch industry. Stratolaunch Systems is pioneering an innovative solution that will revolutionize space travel."

Allen's new company, Stratolaunch Systems, will build a mobile launch system with three primary components:

• A carrier aircraft, developed by Scaled Composites, the aircraft manufacturer and assembler founded by Rutan. It will be the largest aircraft ever flown.
• A multi-stage booster, manufactured by Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies
• A state-of-the-art mating and integration system allowing the carrier aircraft to safely carry a booster weighing up to 490,000 pounds. It will be built by Dynetics, a leader in the field of aerospace engineering.

Stratolaunch Systems will bring airport-like operations to the launch of commercial and government payloads and, eventually, human missions. Plans call for a first flight within five years. The air-launch-to-orbit system will mean lower costs, greater safety, and more flexibility and responsiveness than is possible today with ground-based systems. Stratolaunch's quick turnaround between launches will enable new orbital missions as well as break the logjam of missions queued up for launch facilities and a chance at space.

The Stratolaunch system will eventually have the capability of launching people into low earth orbit. But the company is taking a building block approach in development of the launch aircraft and booster, with initial efforts focused on unmanned payloads. Human flights will follow, after safety, reliability and operability are demonstrated.

The carrier aircraft will operate from a large airport/spaceport, such as Kennedy Space Center, and will be able to fly up to 1,300 nautical miles to the payload's launch point.

It will use six 747 engines, have a gross weight of more than 1.2 million pounds and a wingspan of more than 380 feet.  For takeoff and landing, it will require a runway 12,000 feet long.  Systems onboard the launch aircraft will conduct the countdown and firing of the booster and will monitor the health of the orbital payload.  

The plane will be built in a Stratolaunch hangar which will soon be under construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

The multi-stage booster will be manufactured by California-based Space Exploration Technologies, one of the world's pre-eminent space transportation companies.  

Dynetics will provide the mating and integration system and the systems engineering, integration, test and operations support for the entire air-launch system. The mating and integration system will be manufactured in Huntsville, Alabama in Dynetics' new 226,500 square foot prototyping facility.  

Stratolaunch Systems' corporate headquarters is located in Huntsville, Alabama.