Just released new aerial and ground shots of the latest test series performed this weekend. More to come! stratolaunch.com/gallery.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/world-s-biggest-plane-stratolaunch-marks-another-key-milestone-ncna851556
A spacecraft typically weighs just 1-2 percent as much as the rocket that launches it, Hudson says. Since Stratolaunch is designed to carry up to 550,000 pounds, its payload capacity is likely to be 5,000 to 10,000 pounds. That’s enough to ferry astronauts to a space station or launch small satellites. But it’s nowhere near the payload capacity of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.SpaceX’s booster can carry 50,265 pounds to low-Earth orbit and up to 18,300 pounds to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), an intermediate orbit where large communication satellites are launched to before they power themselves to geostationary orbit, where they essentially hover above the same part of the planet continuously.Space X makes the bulk of its non-governmental revenue from launching communications satellites weighing about 10,000 pounds into GTO, says Hudson. “So it is no threat to SpaceX in broad business terms,” he says of Stratolaunch.
In exclusive interviews last summer, Allen and Jean Floyd, Stratolaunch System's chief executive, laid out the company’s plans for the giant plane, providing an answer to why anyone would want to build an aircraft that has 28 wheels, six 747 jet engines and a wingspan longer than a football field.“I would love to see us have a full reusable system and have weekly, if not more often, airport-style, repeatable operations going,” Allen said in an interview in his Seattle office.The Black Ice space plane — should it be built — would be about as big as the former space shuttle developed by NASA and capable of staying up for at least three days. It could be launched from virtually anywhere in the world, as long as the runway could accommodate Stratolaunch’s size. And it would be capable of flying to the International Space Station, taking satellites and experiments to orbit, and maybe one day even people — though there are no plans for that in the near-term.Then it would land back on the runway, ready to fly again.“You make your rocket a plane,” Floyd said. “So, you have an airplane carrying a plane that’s fully reusable. You don’t throw anything away ever. Only fuel.”For now, the company is focused on the maiden flight of Stratolaunch, which could come later this year. Then it would decide whether to pursue Black Ice
An orbital space plane that could be flown weekly with aircraft-like operations?Well, who doesn't want something like that? It's the holy grail of spaceflight.Will it happen? Maybe. Maybe not.
Well, RL-10s have terrible sea level performance and excellent vacuum performance, so being able to launch at high altitude might make them feasible as main propulsion. Maybe enough to do SSTO reusable.
I wonder if you could loop the loop and launch on the upward swing? That would simplify the rocket design.
