The wild, but underwhelming ride that has been Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s effort to revolutionize the launch industry with the Stratolaunch aircraft has taken another turn. Yesterday, Stratolaunch Systems announced an agreement with Orbital ATK to use the massive carrier aircraft to loft Pegasus XL rockets for air launch, a move which would supplant the […]
To loosely paraphrase Khan Noonien Sing (the real one) Stratolaunch may no as wounded as the Wall Street Journal led us to believe. Here is a statement sent to Spacenews from Vulcan Aerospace made in response to yesterday’s story : Vulcan Aerospace remains steadfast in its mission to transform space transportation to low-Earth orbit […]
Virgin Galactic Press Release, Comments Follow VIRGIN GALACTIC ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS WITH LAUNCHERONE ROCKET PROPULSION IN-HOUSE TEAM ACHIEVES KEY MILESTONES IN STEADY-STATE TESTING OF MAIN STAGE AND UPPER STAGE LIQUID ENGINES MOJAVE, California – September 28, 2015 – Successful test firings of key propulsion components marked the latest sign of progress for Virgin Galactic’s dedicated small […]
The prospects for air-launched, lower cost access to space appear to be soaring higher all the time. On July 27th, a defense contracts notification website reported that Boeing has received a contract modification for its Experimental Spaceplane, XS-1 award. Managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the XS-1 program is seeking to […]
KSC Director Robert Cabana Addresses the Media on the “21st Century Spaceport” Addressing the concerns of his audience at the Kennedy Space Center on April 15th 2010, President Obama sought to assure NASA and contract employees that the changes his administration was about to institute; cancelling Project Constellation, maintaining ISS, greenlighting Commercial Crew, and setting […]
Image credit KGET 17. Notice workers circled in red for scale. A series of still images from an upcoming tv news story about Stratolaunch Systems has been released, providing a rare glimpse into the project. The original Aviation Week article, with more images, is here. Background and Analysis One of the least visible launch development […]
Waiting on a new day / Image credit Orbital Sciences It was a beautiful evening for a rocket launch. Unfortunately, it was also an equally beautiful evening to do a little boating. Ordinarily not a problem, but in this case the unidentified vessel in question was downrange of the Orbital Sciences Antares booster which was […]
A press release from Sierra Nevada Corporation issued in advance of a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress suggests a somewhat diminished version of its Dream Chaser space plane may have a future irrespective of what happens with the protest the company has lodged regarding NASA’s Commercial Crew CCtCap award. SNC Press Release: SPARKS, Nev. […]
Image Credit: Swiss Space Systems Since the day it was announced, Swiss Space Systems has been among the more intriguing NewSpace companies enering the launch arena. With its vision of a two/thirds reusable space launch platform consisting of a modified Airbus A-300 carrying aloft a fully reusable, unmanned winged second stage based on both European and […]
Several interesting developments suggest the Stratolaunch project is beginning to gain serious traction, marking a new entry into the intermediate class of a launch vehicles left vacant since ULA discontinued production of the Delta II, and SpaceX walked away from the Falcon 5, and its own preliminary involvement in the Paul Allen project. GenCorp, the […]
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