...and no, Dynetics does NOT involve L Ron Hubbard! Another way to put it is: Burt Rutan + Elon Musk + Paul Allen = ? ...and what does it equal?? A launch system for LEO that would give Werner von Braun a woody! Stratolaunch, a partnership between these three companies, will be doing test flights in 5 years. The platform will consist of the largest aircraft to fly, designed by Scaled Composites. It's quite similar in concept to the White Knight and White Knight 2 launch platforms Rutan created for SpaceShip One and Virgin Spaceways, but... The wingspan is 385, feet. That's bigger than the Spruce Goose. That's bigger than 2 space shuttle packages stacked end on end. It'll be powered by six engines that are usually on Boeing 747s. This plane will carry a SpaceX two stage booster and Dragon spacecraft to altitude, where it will be released, ignite its first stage engine and head for black sky. The second stage of the booster looks to be the same as the SpaceX Falcon's second stage. Aerial launch provides for unprecedented flexibility in flight profiles. A slogan seen in their advertising is: Any Orbit. Any Time. >
Read about that in the news yesterday. Interesting stuff for sure. Technology-wise, we're living in a truly extra-ordinary era. With Hubble, we have the ability to stare straight into the hearts of super novas at distances that we cannot yet travel. In CERN in Switzerland, in the mean-time, the "God-particle" is within reach, and we have commercial corporations looking into putting ordinary citizens like you and me into space :)
In the video they say this vehicle gets rid of weather constrains, I guess as compared to rocket or shuttle launchs. Thinking about track length and optimal wind for takeoff that must be a joke. "Six engines" brings to my mind the Convair B-36, yet this... bird... looks from a previous age. I have never been a great fan of ARCA, but their IAR-111 design is way more solid than this one. Thanks for this, AlphaGeek. Interesting off-topics in the right places come in handy more than often!
Whats happened with virgin galactic lately? I thought they were supposed to start running passengers in 2010, but last i checked they were still in testing. (been a few months since i googled around for it though) narfi
Ordaz, agreed... to some degree. While the carrier craft does look a little old-school, The overall design concept has been proven out with several of Rutan's previous designs, including White Knght 2, the carrier craft for Virgin Galactic's suborbital craft. When looking at the concept video, I was reminded of some of the old delta wing carrier designs. I *think* von Braun himself did those for Colliers magazine back in the 1950's. The IAR-111 is a sleek craft for sure. Mission parameters are a bit different though as it's lifting a lighter cargo, namely a lightweight unmanned lunar lander that's contending for an X-Prize. They're going faster so they can save booster fuel (weight) for making the TLI burn to get out of low earth orbit and to the moon. Scaled's new craft doesn't need the super sleek look. It just needs to be an airplane that can go a few hundreds of KPH and lift a manned capsule and a booster for low Earth orbit. Don't worry though, Rutan's got some seriously slick planes in his portfolio (Beechcraft Starship, VariEze, Pond Racerto name a few), and saves the aerodynamics for when they're most needed. As for the orbital craft, it's the SpaceX Dragon Capsule, the only commercial craft to make orbit (to date). SpaceX is slated to make their second test flight, which is scheduled to dock with the ISS, in February of 2012. This partnership is a pretty interesting idea. Rutan had been quoted as saying that the SpaceshipOne and Spaceship Two designs could never be used for orbital speeds, and a different re-entry method would have to be come up with since those craft could never stand the stress and heat of coming in at 17,500 mph. By partnering with SpaceX, and using a already proven capsule, this bypasses the problem pretty neatly. Would I have liked to have seen a Rutan designed orbital spaceplane? You're damn skippy I would! Oh well. Maybe he's still got something up his sleeve. :) Narfi, I think the 2007 SS2 engine accident during a ground test set Virgin's test regimen back some. They resumed glide tests this past September. The craft had a systems issue resulting in the pilot forcing the craft into the "feather" position and back out to aerodynamic flight in order to regain control. I suspect they're working on whatever bug caused that before resuming flight.
