{"id":19754,"date":"2011-12-13T20:52:27","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T12:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/with-stratolaunch-project-paul-allen-makes-a-big-bet-on-commercial-spaceflight\/"},"modified":"2011-12-13T20:52:27","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T12:52:27","slug":"with-stratolaunch-project-paul-allen-makes-a-big-bet-on-commercial-spaceflight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/with-stratolaunch-project-paul-allen-makes-a-big-bet-on-commercial-spaceflight\/","title":{"rendered":"With Stratolaunch project, Paul Allen makes a big bet on commercial spaceflight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, Burt Rutan and Paul Allen at the conclusion of the news conference today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As he began speaking at the news conference for Paul Allen\u2019s Stratolaunch space project today, renowned aerospace engineer Burt Rutan pointed out a \u201clarge mistake\u201d in a video simulation and model of the aircraft that the venture will use to launch rockets into space from 30,000 feet in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should never show this airplane or a model of it without, right next to it, an airplane that we know how big it is, like a little 747,\u201d Rutan said \u2014 making the point that the Stratolaunch plane, with a wingspan wider than the length of a football field, will dwarf the giant of Boeing\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n

\"\"That\u2019s just one measure of the bet that Allen is making on the project. In addition to following through on his childhood dreams about space, Allen will be attempting to improve an investment track record that has been decidedly mixed since he left Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Answering questions at the news conference, the billionaire declined to say how much he\u2019s spending on the Stratolaunch project, but indicated that he\u2019s the sole financier, with the other companies involved in the project serving as subcontractors.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously this is not inexpensive,\u201d Allen said, adding that it will the investment will total \u201cat least an order of magnitude\u201d more than he put into SpaceShipOne project. The total cost of that project was $28 million, Allen revealed in his recent memoir.<\/p>\n

During the Stratolaunch news conference, a reporter told Allen about the old saying that the quickest way to become a millionaire in the airline business is to start off as a billionaire. Allen joked that the same could be said of yachts, another of his passions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Stratolaunch air transport vehicle, which will be used to launch spacecraft from 30,000 feet. (Click for larger image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is obviously a big initial investment that we wouldn\u2019t be making if we didn\u2019t think there were going to be a lot of customers out there, both for cargo and for manned missions in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a big initial fixed investment to get this going. But you have a certain number of dreams in your life that you want to fulfill, and this is a dream that I\u2019m very excited about seeing come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

One advantage, Allen said, is that Stratolaunch is taking advantage of established systems such as 747 engines, six of which will be used in the launch vehicle.<\/p>\n

But there will also be plenty of competition to ferry passengers and cargo into space, as companies rush to fill the void left by the discontinuation of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.<\/p>\n

Stratolaunch is aiming for a first flight within five years, starting with cargo missions.<\/p>\n

One thing is clear: Allen won\u2019t be the first passenger when the manned spaceflights start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m going to wait for a large number of those flights to happen before I\u2019ll be on one,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m actually a fairly conservative guy in some aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the video depicting the Stratolaunch vision (without a 747 for comparison, for now).<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, Burt Rutan and Paul Allen at the conclusion of the news conference today. As he began speaking at the news conference for Paul Allen\u2019s Stratolaunch space project today, renowned aerospace engineer Burt Rutan pointed out a \u201clarge mistake\u201d in a video simulation and model of the aircraft that the venture […]<\/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":[39,2672,2489],"class_list":["post-19754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace","tag-paul-allen","tag-stratolaunch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19754"}],"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=19754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}