That would be one big son of a gun!
This method saves money by not using rocket fuel to get off the ground. Another older rocket company, Orbital Sciences Corp., uses this method for unmanned rockets to launch satellites.
The rockets will eventually carry people, but the first tests, scheduled for 2016, will be unmanned. It should be another five years before people can fly on the system that Allen and Rutan are calling Stratolaunch..............That's a monster plane !!!
FFS -
ZEPPLINS! :D
Another older rocket company, Orbital Sciences Corp., uses this method for unmanned rockets to launch satellites.
I remember when Orbital Sciences was banned from the Eastern Space and Missile Center aka Cape Canaveral when they violated a Range Safety hold and launched anyway. It was many years before they were allowed to come back again.
With that being said I wish Rutan and Allen all the best.
>> The rockets will eventually carry people... it will blast into orbit after the plane climbs high into the atmosphere.
Microsoft’s initial manned flights will be full of Apple employees... one way.
If THAT works out the way Gates plans, Microsoft will expand the program to include Google employees, too. :-)
Unmanned spaceflight still is.
That would be one big son of a gun!
As usual, CBS is late with the news because I read about this several weeks ago. I wish Paul and Burt luck and hope they succeed. What they’re doing is what America is all about -innovation, experimentation and betting your ass, along with your fortune, that you’ll be successful.
Damn history rerun: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_Hercules
Microsoft, doing what NASA used to do........
Nice, but I think SpaceX, started by the owner of PayPal, has a good viable business plan for cheap access to space. They even have a completely reusable design they will attempt to build that will reuse more components than this design will.
Hope he paints the plain blue.
Given Microsoft’s record in the field of tech, it’ll be the (wait for it)
Blue Plane of Death.
Oh great, I can see it now. Hope Rutan’s patience can hold up, with Stratolaunch 1.0, 1.1.5, 2.0, replacement Improvedlaunch 1.0, 1.1.5, 2.0, 2.5.1, 2.5.2, replacement EvenBetterlaunch 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 and four other refinements within three years and two months.
“If Improvedlaunch doesn’t work when you boot up, just shut down and try again.”
“O.S. not found. Please refer to your owner’s manual.”
“You are not authorized as the manager of your equipment. Please contact your administrator.”
“Your system has experienced an error, and is being shut down to save your life. Please open the windows and flap your arms like hell!”
“This method saves money by not using rocket fuel to get off the ground.”
I see. It will use ‘jet fuel’ to loft the giant plane and it’s giant cargo (the capsule riding along for the ride).
Given the combined weight and given that the capsule-vehicle must still carry its own fuel to “blast” above the altitude to which it is delivered by the plane, and the plane must also carry enough fuel to return to land; is the “fuel savings” the greatest “savings”?
I would think the biggest savings would be in the reusability of the launch plane, because even though a “rocket launch pad” may not be needed, I would expect new and separate take-off and landing facilities for the behemoth plane would be needed; putting into question any “savings” from not needing a “rocket launch pad”.
I’d rather he build a space elevator
I've said this before and I'll say it again.
There's nothing that can be done by people in space that can't be done cheaper and faster by people right here on Earth.
All of the technology we've gained has come from going into space. Nothing has come from people actually being in space.
Will it be running Win95 or Vista?
Interestingly, some of the earliest speculations about Sputnik 1 is that it was launched by a similar airplane/launch rocket set-up. Things do have a way of coming full circle.