Stratolaunch Systems is a space transportation venture specializing in air launch to orbit. Stratolaunch Systems to build the largest aircraft ever constructed.

Noted for having begun the space tourist era with SpaceShip One in 2004, Paul Allen and Burt Rutan have joined forces once again to develop an air-launched space transportation system capable of handling SpaceX Falcon 9 class launch vehicles and above. Rutan's Scaled Composites has been sold to Northrop Grumman but the team is back with an idea for a massive super-lifter with a 385 ft wing space and a gross weight of 1.2 million lb (544,000 kg). The aircraft would be powered by six 60,000 lb thrust engines similar to those fitted to the Boeing 747-400 and adopt that aircraft's flight deck and landing gear.

Fabricated from composites, it would lift the terminal stage and payload to altitude where the rocket stage would be released to acclerate the payload to orbit. Aiming to significantly reduce the cost of launching satellites, Stratolaunch is working with SpaceX to develop a two-stage Falcon 9 derivative designated designated Falcon 5 or 6 and aims fgor a 13,500 lb to low earth orbit capability.
 

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StratolaunchLinks

• NASA Orbital Debris Program Office:
• Space Debris and Human Spacecraft: NASA

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Updated: Saturday 23rd, February, 2013