In California, giant Stratolaunch jet flies for first time

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

In California, giant Stratolaunch jet flies for first time

By JOHN ANTCZAK
April 13, 2019

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A giant six-engine aircraft with the world’s longest wingspan completed what company officials called a superb initial flight over California’s Mojave Desert, bringing to life a dream held by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen.

Stratolaunch Systems Corp. chief executive Jean Floyd said Saturday the aircraft made a “spectacular” landing that was on the mark. Stratolaunch, which was founded by Allen, is vying to be a contender in the market for air-launching small satellites. He died in October.

“It was an emotional moment for me, to personally watch this majestic bird take flight, to see Paul Allen’s dream come to life in front of my very eyes,” Floyd told a teleconference briefing.

Floyd said that as the plane lifted off, “I did whisper a ‘thank you’ to Paul for allowing me to be part of this remarkable achievement.”

The behemoth, twin-fuselage Stratolaunch jet lifted off from Mojave Air and Space Port shortly before 7 a.m. Saturday and climbed into the desert sky 70 miles (112 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. The jet flew 2 ½ hours, achieving a maximum speed of 189 mph (304 kph) and altitudes up to 17,000 feet (5,181 meters), the company said.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/1ea378f268b548a7895b2c7c76eca5a0


Jack Beyer
?@thejackbeyer
8h8 hours ago
WOW. First flight of the worlds largest airplane. History is made. @Stratolaunch @NASASpaceflight #stratolaunch

[cstanleytech]

1. Meh, I am still waiting for something that is not a fossil fuel hog to get cargo en masse in orbit.

If we can find a way then it will open far more doors otherwise what we can do will be extremely limited.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. Don't hold your breath n/t

[cstanleytech]

3. I know, if anything like that can ever be built and or invented its unlikely to be

within my lifetime let alone the next 200 years.

[Bearware]

4. SpaceX's Starship and it's Ultra-Heavy booster sounds likely fits the bill with a modest caveat

It will use oxygen and methane (a fossil fuel/greenhouse gas) for re-usability and reliability as methane is a cleaner burning fuel than kerosene. It also gives SpaceX the ability to make fuel from Mar's atmosphere. Using hydrogen instead of methane would solve your problem but hydrogen is difficult to work with and would impact reliability and potentially power. Spaceflight is very difficult. Reliability
and re-usability are absolutely essential.

In Elon Musk's talk at the international astronautical congress in 2017

he does mention that in the future the methane for fuel for Starship on earth can be made by combining CO2 from the air with Hydrogen by the same process that will be used on Mars. This will then qualify as not being a fossil fuel as long as the power for the process is provided by non-fossil fuel burning sources.

Starship will be able to deliver the largest payload to low Earth orbit of any rocket and be fully reusable. Even more important it can be refueled in orbit by another Starship which will allow record payloads to be sent to higher orbits, the Moon and Mars. This capability should be available in a few years.

If the situation with climate change becomes extremely dire then Starship may become essential for the heavy lifting needed to setup manufacturing on the Moon for solar-sail spacecraft to reduce the amount of solar radiation striking the Earth. This is far less risky than adding compounds to the atmosphere which cannot be easily removed if they cause problems.