World's biggest plane, Stratolaunch, marks another key milestone

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(The reader is really best off, going to the below
cite, to see the visuals on this story.)

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/world-s-biggest-plane-stratolaunch-marks-another-key-milestone-ncna851556

World's biggest plane, Stratolaunch, marks another key milestone
The 500,000-pound monster is designed to offer another way into space.
by Edd Gent / Feb.28.2018 / 8:13 AM ET

For the first time ever, the Stratolaunch aircraft moved out of the
hangar to conduct aircraft fueling tests. This marks the completion of
the initial aircraft construction phase and transition into the aircraft
ground and flight testing phase.Stratolaunch Systems Corp /
Rockets have been the way to get satellites into orbit since the dawn of
the space age. But Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen hopes to shake that
up with help from the world’s biggest airplane.

“Stratolaunch” is a 500,000-pound beast with twin fuselages and a
wingspan of 385 feet. Allen’s Seattle-based company is developing it as
a platform for lifting rockets into the stratosphere before launching
them into space. It’s seen as a cheaper, more reliable route to
low-Earth orbit (LEO) — the sweet spot for many kinds of satellites.


The plane is still in development and has yet to fly, but last December
it taxied out onto the runway at the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave,
California. In another test last Sunday, it hit a new top taxi speed of
46 miles per hour. If all goes according to plan, the plane will take
its first test flight next year. As to when Stratolaunch might begin
commercial operations, no date has been given.

NEW TAKE ON AN OLD IDEA
Air-launching rockets into space isn’t a new idea. The Pegasus XL rocket
built by aerospace contractor Orbital ATK launches from a modified
Lockheed TriStar jetliner. NASA and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group have
similar projects under development, as does the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

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But none of these other platforms is quite on the scale of Stratolaunch.
Powered by six huge Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines, the aircraft is
intended to carry up to 550,000 pounds to an altitude of 35,000 feet. It
has room between its fuselages to suspend rockets from the central
portion of the wing. The company has partnered with Orbital ATK to
launch its Pegasus XL rocket and aims eventually to carry three on each
mission.

Stratolaunch was designed by Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites,
which specializes in concept aircraft. The company won the Ansari X
Prize to launch the first private, reusable, manned spacecraft in 2004
with its SpaceShipOne, which was also launched from a plane.

DEEP POCKETS
Despite the ambitious nature of the project, space entrepreneur Gary
Hudson thinks it has a good chance of success — in part because of
Allen’s deep pockets.

“If they choose wisely, they could provide crew and light cargo services
to LEO for considerably less than current prices,” he says. “If they
don’t, they will become a footnote to astronautical history for having
built the world’s largest plane.” He added that if the plane doesn’t
deliver as planned, it could become another ”Spruce Goose” — a reference
to the behemoth flying boat built in 1947 that flew only once.

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Hudson speaks from experience, having co-founded two air launch
start-ups that have since shut down: AirLaunch was developing an
air-launched rocket in partnership with DARPA and the U.S. Air Force,
while t/Space was working with Scaled Composites on an air-launched
passenger capsule to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

There are several advantages to launching from high altitude, Hudson
says. For one thing, rocket engines perform better in the low pressure
and reduced atmospheric drag found at those altitudes. And air launching
is far more flexible than ground-based rocketry. The launch pads used to
launch ground-based rockets are costly to develop and maintain, and if a
payload needs to rendezvous with another spacecraft or space station, it
may be necessary to wait up to a week for its orbit to pass overhead.

Stratolaunch will be able to launch rockets from a high altitude,
presenting an alternative to conventional ground launches. Stratolaunch
Systems Corp
An airplane can fly to an optimal launch point at any time from any
runway that’s big enough, Hudson says. “Air-launching also removes
weather as a launch impediment,” he added, “since one can relocate the
launch point on short notice.”

HURDLES TO OVERCOME
But the Stratolaunch concept has its drawbacks, including a smaller
payload capacity than other options.

A spacecraft typically weighs just 1-2 percent as much as the rocket
that launches it, Hudson says. Since Stratolaunch is designed to carry
up to 550,000 pounds, its payload capacity is likely to be 5,000 to
10,000 pounds. That’s enough to ferry astronauts to a space station or
launch small satellites. But it’s nowhere near the payload capacity of
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX’s booster can carry 50,265 pounds to low-Earth orbit and up to
18,300 pounds to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), an intermediate
orbit where large communication satellites are launched to before they
power themselves to geostationary orbit, where they essentially hover
above the same part of the planet continuously.

Space X makes the bulk of its non-governmental revenue from launching
communications satellites weighing about 10,000 pounds into GTO, says
Hudson. “So it is no threat to SpaceX in broad business terms,” he says
of Stratolaunch.

Stratolaunch has not yet taken flight, but it has reached a top taxi
speed of 46 miles per hour. Stratolaunch Systems Corp
Then there’s the enormous cost of building such a colossal aircraft.
When Stratolaunch was first announced in 2011, the plane was predicted
to cost $300 million. There’s been no word on whether the project is on
budget; the company didn’t respond to MACH’s request for information.

Finally, building a plane the size of Stratolaunch poses significant
engineering challenges, says Mark Drela, a professor of aeronautics and
astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "On large
airplanes, the structural problems become progressively more difficult
as you go up in size,” he says.

But these problems can be modelled on computers beforehand to help head
off problems. “Anytime you do something new and radical, problems always
come up,” Drela says. As for the people developing Stratolaunch, he
says, “They know what they’re doing.”

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