Tag: Paul Allen
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Stratolaunch celebrates Star Wars Day with fifth flight of its giant airplane, featuring a new pylon
Stratolaunch’s Roc airplane comes in for a Mojave landing. (Stratolaunch / NASASpaceflight.com) Stratolaunch took the “fifth” on May the 4th, otherwise known as Star Wars Day. Today brought the fifth flight test for Stratolaunch’s 385-foot-wide carrier aircraft, known as Roc (in a nod to the giant bird of Middle Eastern mythology). Roc ranks as the…
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A tale of two spaceships: How Seattle tech titans helped launch suborbital space tours
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity and its mothership (left) are modeled after the SpaceShipOne launch system (right) that was built with Seattle billionaire Paul Allen’s backing. (Photos by Virgin Galactic and Michael Pereckas) The suborbital spaceships built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceline may look totally different, but financially…
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Exclusive: Buyer of Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch space venture is secretive Trump ally
Stratolaunch built the world’s largest plane as an aerial launch vehicle for space. (Stratolaunch via YouTube.) The new owner of Stratolaunch, the space venture started by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is Steve Feinberg, a secretive billionaire with close ties to President Donald Trump. In October, Stratolaunch announced that it had transitioned ownership from Allen’s…
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Stratolaunch air-launch venture says it’s been transferred to new owners by Paul Allen’s Vulcan
Stratolaunch’s plane took its first test flight in April. (Scaled Composites Photo) Stratolaunch, the company that was founded by the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen in 2011 to build a flying launch pad for rockets, says it’s under new ownership. The transition serves as the latest sign that Jody Allen — Paul Allen’s sister, who…
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Stratolaunch rebuilds team for the world’s biggest plane after Paul Allen’s death
Stratolaunch’s six-engine, twin-fuselage airplane makes its first flight in April. (Stratolaunch Photo) Stratolaunch is hiring — nearly a year after the death of its billionaire backer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and five months after the company’s monster plane took its first and only test flight. Allen founded the venture in 2011, with the goal of…
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$400 million? Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch space venture is up for sale, sources say
Stratolaunch’s plane soars during its first test flight in April. (Scaled Composites Photo) Sources say Vulcan Inc. is looking to sell Stratolaunch, the space venture founded by the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen, and one report says the asking price could be as high as $400 million. That price tag was reported today by CNBC,…
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Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch flies world’s biggest plane for the first time: ‘Paul would have been proud’
Stratolaunch’s twin-fuselage airplane makes its first flight. (Stratolaunch Photo) Stratolaunch, the aerospace venture founded by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, sent the world’s biggest airplane into the air today for its first flight test. The twin-fuselage plane, which incorporates parts from two Boeing 747 jumbo jets and has a world-record wingspan of 385 feet,…
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World’s largest airplane completes first flight
Stratolaunch’s rocket carrier jet, the largest in the world, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port shortly after 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT; 1400 GMT) Saturday. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News Built for hauling rockets aloft to launch satellites, the world’s biggest airplane landed Saturday after a widely-anticipated test flight over California’s…
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Photos: Stratolaunch’s giant airplane flies over Mojave
Stratolaunch’s rocket carrier jet, the largest aircraft in the world by wing span, took off Saturday morning from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California for its first test flight. The twin-fuselage airplane took off at 6:58 a.m. PDT (9:58 a.m. EDT; 1358 GMT) Saturday and flew for nearly two-and-a-half hours, reaching a top…
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FAA certificate offers new details on Stratolaunch’s plans for test flights of world’s largest aircraft
Stratolaunch’s giant airplane sits on the tarmac at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port. (Stratolaunch Photo) The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the world’s largest airplane for takeoff — but it’s not yet clear exactly when Stratolaunch, the aerospace venture founded by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will put the plane in the air.…