{"id":17824,"date":"2020-01-21T23:14:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T15:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/after-ownership-change-stratolaunch-confirms-that-its-still-working-on-hypersonic-vehicles\/"},"modified":"2020-01-21T23:14:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T15:14:20","slug":"after-ownership-change-stratolaunch-confirms-that-its-still-working-on-hypersonic-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/after-ownership-change-stratolaunch-confirms-that-its-still-working-on-hypersonic-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"After ownership change, Stratolaunch confirms that it\u2019s still working on hypersonic vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_449041\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-449041\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-449041\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180920-strato3-630x471.jpg\" alt=\"Stratolaunch hypersonic testbed\" width=\"630\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180920-strato3-630x471.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180920-strato3-768x575.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180920-strato3-1260x943.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180920-strato3.jpg 1973w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-449041\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stratolaunch\u2019s swept-wing hypersonic testbed would be propelled by a liquid-fueled rocket engine. (Stratolaunch Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s been three months since ownership of the Stratolaunch space venture was transferred from the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen\u2019s estate to a private equity firm, but the new owners say they\u2019re still pursuing one of the old owner\u2019s dreams: hypersonic flight.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stratolaunch\u2019s plans to build and test hypersonic air vehicles were laid out 16 months ago at a Florida conference focusing on space planes and hypersonic systems. Hypersonic vehicles, which travel at least five times the speed of sound, are considered one of the biggest frontiers for weapons development. China and Russia are working to develop hypersonic weapons that could theoretically elude U.S. defenses.<\/li>\n<li>Stratolaunch still has offices in Seattle, and it\u2019s still developing the world\u2019s biggest airplane in California. In the past, the company has highlighted the plane\u2019s capabilities as a flying launch pad for rockets heading to orbit. But in the wake of Allen\u2019s death in 2018 and last October\u2019s transfer of ownership, there\u2019s been increasing speculation that Stratolaunch would put more emphasis on hypersonic vehicle development and testing for military purposes.<\/li>\n<li>Although Stratolaunch has been mostly mum about its plans going forward, today it responded to news reports reviewing its previous hypersonic plans. \u201cStratolaunch is exploring the development of aerospace vehicles and technologies, including the need for reliable, routine access to space. This exploration includes the need to significantly advance the nation\u2019s ability to design and operate hypersonic vehicles,\u201d company spokesman Art Pettigrue said in a statement emailed to GeekWire.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stratolaunch\u2019s swept-wing hypersonic testbed would be propelled by a liquid-fueled rocket engine. (Stratolaunch Illustration) It\u2019s been three months since ownership of the Stratolaunch space venture was transferred from the late Seattle billionaire Paul Allen\u2019s estate to a private equity firm, but the new owners say they\u2019re still pursuing one of the old owner\u2019s dreams: hypersonic [&hellip;]<\/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":[39,4435,439,2489,4883],"class_list":["post-17824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace","tag-hypersonic-flight","tag-military","tag-stratolaunch","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824"}],"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=17824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}