It’s wider than a football field and heavier than a whale. The biggest aeroplane in the world has just left the hangar in Mojave, California. Nicknamed the Roc after a mythical Middle Eastern bird that carried an elephant in its claws, the plane is designed to launch rockets into space.
It is the latest venture of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Since his software days, he has been busy in multiple fields – ranging from media and real estate, to science and sports – but this particular project may be his boldest yet.
satellite-launcher
Allen has entered the satellite launching business. His private spaceflight company Stratolaunch has spent the past six years building the gargantuan carrier plane Once tests are complete, it will launch rockets from a height of 30,000 feet – the cruising altitude of the average passenger plane. The idea is to make it easier and more economical to put satellites into orbit.
Its specifications are unparalleled. Stratolaunch has two fuselages, a wingspan of 385 feet (117m) and a weight of 550,000 pounds (250,000kg). When loaded with a rocket payload, this goes up to a staggering 1.3 million pounds. It’s no surprise, then, that it takes 28 wheels to move on the ground and six jet engines to make it airborne.
SPACE FLIGHT PIONEERS
Allen teamed up with US aerospace company Scaled Composites to build the plane. Stratolaunch is not their first partnership: Allen also funded the company’s SpaceShipOne space plane. On 4 October 2004, it won the $10 million Ansari X Prize as the first private team to reach space, climbing to a record altitude of 367,442 feet (112km).
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic also uses Scaled Composites’ launch systems for its SpaceShipTwo space plane. This is the craft it will use for commercial space travel. Delayed by a fatal test flight in 2014, SpaceShipTwo is back on track, with tickets already on sale for US$250,000 (although the price includes official ‘astronaut’ status for all passengers!).
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL VISION
Focusing on satellites instead of people, Stratolaunch follows Paul Allen’s vision to make access to space more convenient, reliable and routine. Allen has expressed surprise that, 50 years after man’s first trip to space, access to low-Earth orbit continues to be “costly, complex and difficult.” He said: “I am determined to change this to help maximise the potential of space to improve life here on Earth.”
EASIER PROCESS
If successful, Stratolaunch will launch satellites into low-Earth orbit at a fraction of the cost of a conventional rocket launch system. Blasting rockets into space from the ground takes a lot of fuel, a fixed launch location and perfect weather conditions. Doing it from the sky dramatically reduces the fuel requirement, as well as many of the problems associated with vertical rocket launches.
Waiting times for launch pads weather delays and cancellations become less of an issue. Access to space could indeed become routine.
more flexible
In theory, it sounds simple. Stratolaunch takes off from a normal runway, flies to the edge of space, launches the rocket and comes back down for a conventional landing. It effectively takes the launch pad to the sky. What’s more, it could take off from different runways, instead of one fixed location, making it a more flexible option.
Stratolaunch has certainly got its timing right. There is a growing demand for small satellites in low-Earth orbit (120 miles up, at the same altitude as the International Space Station)
SPACE RACE
However, with market demand comes competition. There are other players in the game, too. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Blue Origin, founded by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, are making successful forays into the small satellite launching business, although these are based on reusable, ground-launched rockets. Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is another, closer competitor. It aims to offer the lowest launch cost on the market, using its LauncherOne rockets with Scalable Components’ White Knight Two carrier plane, a smaller craft than Stratolaunch, with a wingspan of just 141 feet.
SPACE FLIGHT EVOLUTION
So the race for low-cost small satellite launching is well underway. These new contenders are trying to change the way satellites are currently being placed into orbit. How? To put it bluntly, by hitching a one-time ride on a big, expensive rocket. The United Launch Alliance in the US, the European Space Agency and many space agencies from other countries all use conventional rocket launch facilities.
The Space Shuttle provided an alternative for a while, running satellite and other missions from 1981 until 2011. It launched satellites, space probes and the Hubble space telescope and helped to service the International Space Station. In the end, the programme was too expensive and it was withdrawn due to lack of funding.
AN ISSUE OF SIZE
Stratolaunch is in a different league altogether: it could haul hundreds of Hubbles or multiple rockets into space on a single flight. The scale of the craft is mind-boggling. According to some people, this could be a problem. They believe it is too big to be profitable for small satellites. After all, while demand is growing, high volumes are not likely. Approximately 4,200 satellites have been put into orbit over the past 60 years, of which about 2,300 remain circling around the Earth. In 2016, 85 satellites were launched; in 2015, 87; in 2014, 92. These are not big numbers.
first deal
A vote of confidence came from aerospace manufacturer Orbital ATK. The company has signed a deal with Stratolaunch to use the aircraft to take its Pegasus XL rockets into space. The size of the plane is seen here as a benefit, as it could carry up to three rockets per flight.
PREPARING FOR TAKE-OFF…
Now, it enters the testing phase. Ground and flight-line tests will be conducted at the Mojave Air and Space Port. Stratolaunch Systems CEO Jean Floyd said: “This is a first-of-its-kind aircraft, so we’re going to be diligent throughout testing and continue to prioritise the safety of our pilots, crew and staff. Stratolaunch is on track to perform its first launch demonstration as early as 2019.”
This means that the biggest plane on Earth could be ready for business by 2020, bringing the world closer to Allen’s vision of routine space access. And when that happens, he says, “innovation will accelerate in ways beyond what we can currently imagine.”