Stratolaunch flies
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Stratolaunch is one of the four largest aircraft
The saddest part is, large planes struggle to survive for long,, or they operate very rarely,, May be due to economy issues.
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And the point is?
Given that SpaceX can launch anything cheaply and land on land anywhere or at sea, what exactly is the point of this beast? Blue Origin has yet to reach orbit but when it does it will also be cheap. Using this beast to launch a rocket from 35000 feet seems silly now
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Mojave has painted a black line down the runway where the right fuselage is when the Stratolaunch is on the centerline
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For most rockets, the dynamic pressure starts to decrease around 13 km of altitude.
To put things in perspective, the burn-out altitude of Ariane V solid rocket booster is 66.7 km with a speed of 2020 m/s. For a smaller rocket like Atlas V 551, it is 37.7 km. So, for an even smaller rocket, starting from stratospheric limit can mean avoiding the complexity of attaching a solid propellant rocket.
Also, when climbing to a LEO orbit, the decrease in geopotential energy is almost linear. This means that starting from 10 km is a 2.5% saving on geopotential energy.
Last edited by Luc Lion; 14th May 2019 at 20:13.
Stratolaunch is an interesting (and valid) concept, but I wonder if anything will ever become of it, especially after the death of Paul Allen.
