Stratolaunch Flies World's Largest Plane for the First Time

https://www.space.com/stratolaunch-flies-worlds-largest-plane-first-time.html

by Someone • 7 years ago

20 2 7 years ago

elteto• 7 years ago

Their approach of strapping a booster to a plane always seemed misguided to me. If the first step in designing a new rocket is to also design a new airplane, and the largest in the world at that, then I think you are throwing money and engineering time away. You now have _two_ really hard problems to solve instead of one.

But I have to say that after seeing what SpaceX has done I am now much more positive and supportive about moonshot ideas instead of being dismissive. So, at any rate, kudos to Stratolaunch!

lawtguy• 7 years ago

Scott Manley has a good video on the Stratolaunch (it's a little bit old though): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw84qJIGZeo

The flight of the Roc launch plane is very impressive, but they have a real problem with the rocket. The Pegasus XL is not cost effective and they've dropped the plans for making a custom air-launched rocket. With Paul Allen gone, it seems like they're trouble unless they can find another backer with deep pockets.

Stratolaunch Flies World's Largest Plane for the First Time

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