Tag: Stratolaunch
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NanoRacks names its space outpost team, including Stratolaunch and Olis Robotics
An artist’s conception shows a Centaur upper-stage booster that’s been outfitted to become an orbital outpost. (NanoRacks Illustration) It takes a village to raise an space outpost, and NanoRacks’ array of villagers includes Stratolaunch as well as Olis Robotics, the startup formerly known as BluHaptics. NanoRacks, which is headquartered in Texas, today listed those two Seattle-based…
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Paul G. Allen’s Stratolaunch space venture is lifting the veil on its PGA rocket engine
An artist’s conception shows Stratolaunch’s PGA rocket engine. (Stratolaunch Illustration) The name of Stratolaunch Systems’ home-grown rocket engine leaves no doubt about who’s footing the bill: It’s called the PGA, as in Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen. Stratolaunch has made glancing references to its in-house propulsion system development program over the past few months — for…
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Stratolaunch’s plane spotted from space
Stratolaunch’s giant airplane sits outside its hangar at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port in a picture captured on Sept. 22 by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1 satellite from an altitude of more than 300 miles. Click on the image for a larger version. (Satellite Image ©2018 DigitalGlobe, a Maxar Company) How big is the world’s biggest airplane?…
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Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems lays out a roadmap for hypersonic rocket planes
Stratolaunch’s swept-wing hypersonic testbed would be propelled by a rocket engine. (Stratolaunch Illustration) Stratolaunch Systems, the aerospace company created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, says it’s exploring the development of a series of rocket planes that would serve as a testbed for hypersonic flight. Stephen Corda, Stratolaunch’s senior technical fellow for hypersonics, presented the concept…
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Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems puts its brand on the world’s biggest airplane
Stratolaunch Systems’ giant plane now sports the company’s name. (Stratolaunch Photo via Twitter) The mammoth plane that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems is testing at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port now bears the name of the billionaire and his air-launch venture. In photos tweeted this week, Stratolaunch showed off the plane’s new livery —…
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Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch unveils plans for new family of rockets (and a space plane)
Artwork shows Stratolaunch’s giant carrier plane and several classes of launch vehicles, including Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus rocket, a medium-class rocket and its heavy-lift variant, and a fully reusable space plane. (Stratolaunch Illustration) Stratolaunch, the space venture created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2011, today provided the first details about a new family of launch…
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Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch venture rolls out world’s biggest airplane for weekend tests
Stratolaunch’s giant airplane sits on the tarmac at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port. (Stratolaunch Photo) Stratolaunch, the launch venture created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, took the world’s biggest airplane out of its hangar this weekend at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port and revved up its engines in preparation for the next step…
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Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch aims to put the world’s biggest plane in the air this summer
Stratolaunch’s twin-fuselage plane catches the rays of the sun during a test outing. (Stratolaunch Photo) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch space company says it’s on track to conduct the first test flight of its mammoth airplane this summer, and use it to send rockets into orbit as early as 2020. The status…
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Bezos, Musk and more: Space billionaires take the spotlight in books and on TV
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (in hat and sunglasses) pops open a bottle of champagne after Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket landing in November 2015. (Credit: Blue Origin) Space is hard: That used to be the excuse for explaining why sending people into space would always be something only governments could do. Now it explains why…
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Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch picks up the pace in runway tests of world’s biggest airplane
Stratolaunch’s twin-fuselage airplane undergoes taxi tests at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port. Note the size of the pickup truck that’s traling the plane. (Stratolaunch Photo) Stratolaunch Systems, the space launch venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, says it put its super-duper-sized carrier plane through a fresh round of revved-up taxi tests last weekend…