{"id":15172,"date":"2016-10-10T21:59:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T13:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/stratolaunch-announces-plan-to-fly-with-pegasus-rockets\/"},"modified":"2016-10-10T21:59:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T13:59:44","slug":"stratolaunch-announces-plan-to-fly-with-pegasus-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/stratolaunch-announces-plan-to-fly-with-pegasus-rockets\/","title":{"rendered":"Stratolaunch announces plan to fly with Pegasus rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An
An artist\u2019s concept of Stratolaunch\u2019s carrier aircraft with three Pegasus rockets. Credit: Stratolaunch Systems<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stratolaunch Systems, a company backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will launch Pegasus XL rockets produced by Orbital ATK from the world\u2019s largest airplane as officials shift focus toward deploying lighter satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n

Stratolaunch and Orbital ATK announced the \u201cproduction-based\u201d partnership last week, claiming the agreement will offer \u201csignificant cost advantages\u201d to air-launch customers.<\/p>\n

Orbital ATK will supply multiple Pegasus XL rockets for Stratolaunch to mount underneath the company\u2019s huge carrier aircraft currently under construction in Mojave, California. The Pegasus rockets, which currently launch from Orbital ATK\u2019s own modified L-1011 carrier plane, can put up to 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) of payload into low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

The decision by Stratolaunch officials to go with an existing rocket will likely reduce the time and cost of developing the firm\u2019s commercial launch system, which the company says should be in service by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

It also signals a shift in Stratolaunch\u2019s strategy to target the small satellite launch market, not bigger spacecraft as the company originally envisioned.<\/p>\n

Allen unveiled Stratolaunch in 2011, initially eyeing a scheme to launch a variant of SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket from a plane. SpaceX later withdrew from the Stratolaunch partnership, and Orbital ATK stepped in with a concept to develop a medium-class launcher named Thunderbolt for Allen\u2019s project.<\/p>\n

But Stratolaunch has revamped its strategy again, this time to focus on launches of small spacecraft, an emerging market driven by satellite constellations planned by companies like OneWeb, SpaceX, Google\u2019s Terra Bella, Planet and others to expand broadband communications coverage and create near real-time maps of Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are energized by this evolved partnership with Orbital ATK,\u201d said Jean Floyd, CEO of Stratolaunch Systems and executive director of Vulcan Aerospace. \u201cOrbital ATK is the world\u2019s most experienced air-launch service provider, and we are proud to leverage that expertise and progressive approach in pursuit of our shared goal of convenient and affordable commercial access to low Earth orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floyd, a former executive at Orbital ATK, joined Stratolaunch last year, then took over as the interim chief manager of Allen\u2019s aerospace investments last month when Vulcan Aerospace\u2019s previous executive director, Chuck Beames, left the company.<\/p>\n

\"File
File photo of a Pegasus XL rocket underneath Orbital\u2019s L-100 carrier plane on a mission in 2013. Credit: U.S. Air Force photo\/Senior Airman Lael Huss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOrbital ATK is excited by this collaboration and sees it as a positive first step in a long-term partnership,\u201d said Scott Lehr, president of Orbital ATK\u2019s flight systems group. \u201cThe combination of our extensive air-launch experience and the Stratolaunch aircraft has the potential to provide innovative and cost-effective options for commercial launch customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pegasus rocket has logged 42 space launch missions since 1990, and 28 successful satellite deployments in a row.<\/p>\n

In its current incarnation, the air-launched rocket is dropped from the belly of Orbital ATK\u2019s L-1011 TriStar carrier airplane, then ignites the first of three solid-fueled rocket motors to accelerate and climb into low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

Stratolaunch has not disclosed how the company will use the Pegasus rocket, but an artist\u2019s illustration released last week showed three Pegasus launchers mounted to the bottom of the company\u2019s enormous airplane.<\/p>\n

The six-engine, twin-fuselage carrier is under construction in California by Northrop Grumman\u2019s Scaled Composites subsidiary. The airplane will have a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters), a length of 238 feet (72 meters), and a maximum takeoff weight of 1.3 million pounds (about 590 metric tons).<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s concept of Stratolaunch\u2019s carrier aircraft with three Pegasus rockets. Credit: Stratolaunch Systems Stratolaunch Systems, a company backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will launch Pegasus XL rockets produced by Orbital ATK from the world\u2019s largest airplane as officials shift focus toward deploying lighter satellites into orbit. Stratolaunch and Orbital ATK announced the \u201cproduction-based\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,2900,554,2899,1828,755,2488,3566],"class_list":["post-15172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-mojave","tag-northrop-grumman","tag-orbital-atk","tag-pegasus","tag-pegasus-xl","tag-scaled-composites","tag-stratolaunch-systems"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}