Stratolaunch Systems
Strato Launch Systems is a U.S. aerospace company, which wants to offer space launches from the air. The company is located in Huntsville, Alabama.
History
The company was founded in 2011 by Microsoft founder Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan. Previously, both were already working together on the development of SpaceShipOne. The system is based on similar components as in this and its successor SpaceShipTwo, with the Virgin Galactic suborbital flights offered.
The three components of the mobile launch system are:
The starting system
The aircraft
The proposed by Allen and Rutan aircraft carrier has a projected wingspan of 117 meters and a length of 65.5 meters, which would mean that so that the aircraft would be built with the so far biggest wingspan. The total weight of the system is 545 tonnes, of which 222 t accounts for transportable booster. To be driven there by six Pratt & Whitney 4056 engines, as they are also used in the Boeing 747-400. These give the system a combat radius of 2400 km to reach the missile launch point. Alternatively, the range is the Frachttansport up to 9200 miles. There will be a runway need with a length of 3660 m. The first test flight is scheduled for 2015.
Scaled of the composites to be developed plane having two parallel hulls which are joined together by a wing centerpiece. This design has been tested successfully with the carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo. The hulls are made for reasons of weight composite materials. The machine is in the right fuselage have a cockpit area as a Boeing 747. For this, the company has already bought two B747. From the Boeing 747-400, the landing gear, hydraulics, electrical system and other are accepted. In pictures an article of 2013, however, the shape of the front hull and the bow has changed. It is planned to produce only one aircraft.
Launcher
A two-stage launcher, which is derived from the Falcon 9 should be developed by SpaceX. It has a projected take-off mass of 220 tons, a length of 35 m and can bring a payload of up to 6.1 tons in a LEO. The first stage should have five engines. The missile should have a delta-shaped wing in front of the engine section of the first stage.
However, the modifications of the Falcon 9 Space X were technical production to consuming. Therefore Strato Launch joined Orbital Sciences as rocket supplier. Orbital but was at the time of notification of this change still in the definition stage of its rocket, so that nothing was known of it at the time ( in December 2012). In August 2013 it was announced that ATK will provide the first and second stage of this rocket solid motors. Its diameter will be 3.2 to 3.7 meters. You should be able to bring 6.8 tons in a Near-Earth orbit and have a payload fairing with 5 meters in diameter.
Installation and Integration unit
In the middle of the two hulls connected wing piece is the " Mating and Integration System", the rocket depends on the aircraft. It provides the mechanical connection and the electrical connections to the carrier aircraft and is to be built by Dynetics.
Planned Mission Steps
The aircraft starts with the payload at the center portion of the wing, and rises on the way to the start point of the missile to about 9000 meters. It lifts the nose at the start point by about 45 ° and drops the rocket. The rocket ignites after a few seconds and goes into space on. After the first stage is turned off, separating the second from the payload and ignites. After her burnout, the payload is separated. The carrier aircraft returns to the launch site.
Base
Strato Launch Systems has signed a contract for over twenty years for the use of an area of eight acres on the Mojave Air & Space Port. There, a 19,000 -square-foot hangar to be built.
The hangar of Strato launch system for the carrier aircraft was completed in March 2013 at the Mojave Air & Space Port.