Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will build the world's largest aircraft -- powered by six 747 engines -- to serve as a platform for shooting commercial payloads into orbit.
The Microsoft co-founder joined aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan to unveil an ambitious new space venture Tuesday. Stratolaunch Systems aims to begin initial tests of its new system in 2015. An initial launch is penciled in for 2016.
The Huntsville, Alabama venture’s system includes an enormous plane, built by Scaled Composites -- founded by Rutan and now owned by Northrop Grumman -- and a multi-stage booster rocket based on technology from Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“For the first time since John Glenn America can not fly its own astronauts into space,"Allen said in a press briefing Tuesday. “With government funded space launch diminishing there is an expanding opportunity for private effort."
The effort builds on Allen and Rutan's effort with SpaceShipOne. The craft, built and designed by Scaled Composites, completed the first private manned space flight in 2004.
That craft now hangs in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., and is the basis for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism effort.
Allen and Rutan want to take their SpaceShipOne effort further, however, building a system able to launch payloads into orbit from a scaled up version of the plane.
The aim is to build a system that's cheaper, safer, and more flexible than simply strapping a payload to the top of an enormous rocket and launching it from the ground, the pair said.
Air launch will offer a "performance advantage" of about 5 to 10 percent over ground-based rockets, Rutan said. "It's a small advantage when you go into orbit, but it's in a world where a small advantage is actually big," Rutan said.
Allen declined to say how much the effort will cost, saying only that it will cost "an order of magnitude," more than Rutan and Allen's SpaceShipOne effort.
The venture will be a showcase for private space flight specialists such as Scaled Composites, SpaceX, and Dynetics, each of which will supply a piece of Stratolaunch's system.
Instead of a traditional rocket Stratolaunch will rely on a 'carrier aircraft,' designed by Scaled Composites and equipped with a wingspan of more than 380 feet, a gross weight of more than 1.2 million pounds, and powered by six 747 engines.
By contrast, the Hughes H-4 Hercules, or 'Spruce Goose,' -- which boasts the largest wingspan of any airplane ever flown -- has a wingspan of 319 feet.
The enormous plane will take off from a 12,000 foot runway and fly up to 1,300 nautical miles to a 'launch point.'
The 'carrier' will then launch a multi-stage booster rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies -- also known as SpaceX -- that will carry the payload into orbit.
Yet another company, Dynetics, will supply the 'mating and integration system,' for the system.
The plan is to begin putting unmanned payloads into orbit within five years, and to move to manned flights after the systems safety and reliability are demonstrated.
The group has already begun construction of a hangar in the Mojave desert.
The effort will be led by Chief Executive Gary Wentz, a former chief engineer at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Mike Griffin, a former NASA administrator, will serve on the venture's board of directors.
