Editor note: Shuttle should continue to fly until replacement is operational.
Stratolaunch Systems is pioneering innovative solutions to revolutionize space transportation
Press Conference:
Paul G. Allen Announces Revolution in Space Transportation Stratolaunch System to bring safer, less expensive, missions
Click Here to Watch video of the Stratolaunch Press Conference | Dowload this Press Release as a PDF
SEATTLE, WA, Dec 13, 2011 – Entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen announced today that he and aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan have reunited to develop the next generation of space travel. Allen and Rutan, whose SpaceShipOne was the first privately-funded, manned rocket ship to fly beyond earth’s atmosphere, are developing a revolutionary approach to space transportation: an air-launch system to provide orbital access to space with greater safety, cost-effectiveness and flexibility.
The space flight revolution Allen and Rutan pioneered in 2004 with SpaceShipOne now enters a new era. Only months after the last shuttle flight closed an important chapter in spaceflight, Allen is stepping in with an ambitious effort to continue America’s drive for space.
“I have long dreamed about taking the next big step in private space flight after the success of SpaceShipOne – to offer a flexible, orbital space delivery system,” Allen said. “We are at the dawn of radical change in the space launch industry. Stratolaunch Systems is pioneering an innovative solution that will revolutionize space travel.”
Allen’s new company, Stratolaunch Systems, will build a mobile launch system with three primary components:
A carrier aircraft, developed by Scaled Composites, the aircraft manufacturer and assembler founded by Rutan. It will be the largest aircraft ever flown.
A multi-stage booster, manufactured by Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies;
A state-of-the-art mating and integration system allowing the carrier aircraft to safely carry a booster weighing up to 490,000 pounds. It will be built by Dynetics, a leader in the field of aerospace engineering.
Stratolaunch Systems will bring airport-like operations to the launch of commercial and government payloads and, eventually, human missions. Plans call for a first flight within five years. The air-launch-to-orbit system will mean lower costs, greater safety, and more flexibility and responsiveness than is possible today with ground-based systems. Stratolaunch’s quick turnaround between launches will enable new orbital missions as well as break the logjam of missions queued up for launch facilities and a chance at space. Rutan, who has joined Stratolaunch Systems as a board member, said he was thrilled to be back working with Allen. “Paul and I pioneered private space travel with SpaceShipOne, which led to Virgin Galactic’s commercial suborbital SpaceShipTwo Program. Now, we will have the opportunity to extend that capability to orbit and beyond. Paul has proven himself a visionary with the will, commitment and courage to continue pushing the boundaries of space technology. We are well aware of the challenges ahead, but we have put together an incredible research team that will draw inspiration from Paul’s vision.”
To lead the Stratolaunch Systems team, Allen picked a veteran NASA official with years of experience in engineering, management and human spaceflight. Stratolaunch Systems CEO and President Gary Wentz, a former chief engineer at NASA, said the system’s design will revolutionize space travel.
Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, also a Stratolaunch board member, joined Allen and Rutan at a press conference in Seattle to announce the project. “We believe this technology has the potential to someday make spaceflight routine by removing many of the constraints associated with ground launched rockets,” Griffin said. “Our system will also provide the flexibility to launch from a large variety of locations.”
The Stratolaunch system will eventually have the capability of launching people into low earth orbit. But the company is taking a building block approach in development of the launch aircraft and booster, with initial efforts focused on unmanned payloads. Human flights will follow, after safety, reliability and operability are demonstrated.
The carrier aircraft will operate from a large airport/spaceport, such as Kennedy Space Center, and will be able to fly up to 1,300 nautical miles to the payload’s launch point.
It will use six 747 engines, have a gross weight of more than 1.2 million pounds and a wingspan of more than 380 feet. For takeoff and landing, it will require a runway 12,000 feet long. Systems onboard the launch aircraft will conduct the countdown and firing of the booster and will monitor the health of the orbital payload.
The plane will be built in a Stratolaunch hangar which will soon be under construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port. It will be near where Scaled Composites built SpaceShipOne which won Allen and Scaled Composites the $10-million Ansari X Prize in 2004 after three successful sub-orbital flights. Scaled Composites is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman.
“Scaled is all about achieving milestones and pursuing breakthroughs, and this project offers both – building the largest airplane in the world, and achieving the manufacturing breakthroughs that will enable Scaled to accomplish it. We are thrilled to be a part of this development program,” said Scaled Composites President Doug Shane. “We anticipate significant hiring of engineering, manufacturing, and support staff in the near and medium term.”
The multi-stage booster will be manufactured by California-based Space Exploration Technologies, one of the world’s pre-eminent space transportation companies. “Paul Allen and Burt Rutan helped generate enormous interest in space with White Knight and SpaceShipOne,” said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. “There was no way we weren’t going to be involved in their next great endeavor. We are very excited.”
Dynetics will provide the mating and integration system and the systems engineering, integration, test and operations support for the entire air-launch system. The mating and integration system will be manufactured in Huntsville, Alabama in Dynetics’ new 226,500 square foot prototyping facility. Dynetics has been a leader in aerospace engineering since 1974. “We are excited to play such a major role on this system. This is an ambitious project unlike any that has been undertaken and I am confident the Stratolaunch team has the experience and capabilities to accomplish the mission,” said Dynetics Executive Vice President and Stratolaunch Board Member David King.
Stratolaunch Systems’ corporate headquarters is located in Huntsville, Alabama. Today’s announcement was the first public word that Allen and Rutan were back in the space business. But space has long been on Allen’s mind. In the close of his memoir, Idea Man, published earlier this year, he hinted at his plans, writing that he was “considering a new initiative with that magical contraption I never wearied of sketching as a boy: the rocket ship.”
Click Here to Watch video of the Stratolaunch Press Conference
Stratolaunch Systems Signs Lease with Mojave Air and Space Port
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 31, 2011 – Gary Wentz, CEO and president of Stratolaunch Systems announced today that he has signed a 20-year lease agreement with the Kern County Airport Authority, Mojave, Cal., for the lease of 20 acres at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The land leased will be used to build a large hanger facility for the manufacturing and testing of aircraft. The construction of the facility is set for late 2011.
“We are excited to enter into this agreement with the Mojave Air and Space Port and will start construction of this state-of-the-art facility very soon,” said Wentz.
Susan G. Turner joins Stratolaunch Systems as chief operating officer
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., March 28, 2011 – Stratolaunch Systems announced today that Susan Turner, former NASA senior manager, will join the company as chief operating officer. Turner, whose most recent position as special assistant to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Engineering Director, will be responsible for day-to-day operations of Stratolaunch.
Turner began her career in 1983 with the Redstone Engineering Development Center and joined NASA in 1986. Turner joins Stratolaunch Systems after an extensive career at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). She has a wide range of technical and managerial experience, including work on the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor, the Inertial Upper Stage and the International Space Station. In 1998, she was named assistant director of the MSFC's Propulsion Laboratory, where she led strategic planning efforts. In May of 1999, she was appointed project manager for the X-37 Space Plane Project. She then went on to become the deputy chief engineer in Science & Mission Systems; deputy project manager for the Reusable Solid Rocket Booster for the Space Shuttle Program; and special assistant to the engineering director leading the development of acquisition strategy for all engineering services.
Turner has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University and a master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She has completed the coursework for her doctoral degree in Engineering Management at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She is the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, numerous NASA Group Achievements Awards and Special Service Awards, and the MSFC Federal Women’s Program Outstanding Woman Achiever Award (Engineer) in 1999. She is a graduate of the 1990 International Space University, Toronto, Canada.
“Susan brings a strong set of technical and managerial skills to the team as well as a wealth of development and flight test experience that will be invaluable to Stratolaunch,” said Gary Wentz, President and CEO Stratolaunch Systems.
"I want to keep stretching the boundaries of the possible..." Paul G. Allen, from book Idea Man
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Private spaceflight gets new contender with Stratolaunch
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: December 13, 2011
Designer Burt Rutan, billionaire Paul Allen, rocketman Elon Musk and former NASA boss Mike Griffin are teaming to develop an air-launch rocket system that would use a super aircraft the size of two 747s to carry a liquid-fueled SpaceX booster to 30,000 feet where it would be dropped to fire hardware and humans into orbit.
It is called Stratolaunch, a project being financed by Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, who wants to spur low-cost, private access to space.
Allen was a partner with Rutan, pumping more than $20 million in the SpaceShipOne project that captured the X Prize in 2004 as the first private spacecraft to make trips to the edge of space and back.
But those were sub-orbital treks. Now, the duo wants to tackle orbital spaceflight to loft manned capsules and even satellites.
"I have long dreamed about taking the next big step in private spaceflight after the success of SpaceShipOne -- to offer a flexible, orbital space delivery system," Allen said in a press release. "We are at the dawn of radical change in the space launch industry. Stratolaunch Systems is pioneering an innovative solution that will revolutionize space travel."
Their concept calls for creating a carrier jet with a 385-foot wingspan and six engines to ferry a liquid-fueled, 120-foot-long rocket built by SpaceX and outfitted with five main engines to altitude where the winged booster will be released for launch into orbit.
The winged rocket ignites for launch into space. Credit: Stratolaunch
Officials tout the air-launch nature of the system as giving the flexibility to send the rocket on any trajectory to reach any desired orbit, hauling the rocket over the open ocean to aim in all directions, which is something not possible from ground-based pads that are restricted from sending boosters flying over populated areas.
The combined vehicle will weigh some 1.2 million pounds at takeoff. Potential departure points include the space shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and the carrier will be capable of flying up to 1,300 nautical miles to the payload's launch point.
Flight testing of the aircraft is expected to begin in 2015 or 2016, with the first launch sometime later.
"Paul and I pioneered private space travel with SpaceShipOne, which led to Virgin Galactic's commercial suborbital SpaceShipTwo Program. Now, we will have the opportunity to extend that capability to orbit and beyond. Paul has proven himself a visionary with the will, commitment and courage to continue pushing the boundaries of space technology. We are well aware of the challenges ahead, but we have put together an incredible research team that will draw inspiration from Paul's vision."
Officials say it is too soon to predict the number of launches per year "but the objective is to have a routine mission schedule that takes full advantage of the operational responsiveness and flexibility of this system, and offers a very cost-competitive launcher to the market," according to the company.
The Stratolaunch Systems CEO and president is Gary Wentz, a former engineer at NASA. Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is a company board member.
"We believe this technology has the potential to someday make spaceflight routine by removing many of the constraints associated with ground launched rockets," Griffin said. "Our system will also provide the flexibility to launch from a large variety of locations."
The aircraft taxis to the runway for takeoff. Credit: Stratolaunch
The carrier aircraft will require a runway 12,000 feet long, officials say. The plane will be built inside a soon-to-be-constructed 200,000-square-foot facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, site of the SpaceShipOne flights.
Scaled Composites, originally founded by Rutan, built SpaceShipOne and its White Knight carrier plane and is now a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, will produce the aircraft for Stratolaunch.
"Scaled is all about achieving milestones and pursuing breakthroughs, and this project offers both -- building the largest airplane in the world, and achieving the manufacturing breakthroughs that will enable Scaled to accomplish it. We are thrilled to be a part of this development program," said Scaled Composites President Doug Shane. "We anticipate significant hiring of engineering, manufacturing, and support staff in the near and medium term."
The space booster for the project will be manufactured by Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX. The Elon Musk-founded firm has developed its Falcon rockets and Dragon capsules in-house from scratch, and now becomes a supplier to the Stratolaunch concept.
"Paul Allen and Burt Rutan helped generate enormous interest in space with White Knight and SpaceShipOne," said Gwynne Shotwell SpaceX president and Stratolaunch board member. "There was no way we weren't going to be involved in their next great endeavor. We are very excited."
The rocket is dropped from the carrier jet. Credit: Stratolaunch
The advertised cargo-carrying capacity for the rocket is 13,500 pounds of payload to low-Earth orbit, putting it in the same general class as the Delta 2 rocket.
Stratolaunch's corporate headquarters is located in Huntsville, Alabama.
The systems engineering and integration tasks on the project will be handled by Dynetics, also of Huntsville. Former space shuttle launch director and current Dynetics executive vice president David King will be another of Stratolaunch's board members.
"We are excited to play such a major role on this system. This is an ambitious project unlike any that has been undertaken and I am confident the Stratolaunch team has the experience and capabilities to accomplish the mission," said King.
Over 100 people are working on Stratolaunch today and the company says there will be "a significant ramp-up" in employment in Alabama, California and Florida as the project moves into manufacturing and eventually operations.
"It has become evident that the industry needs a responsive and operationally flexible solution to increase flight rate resulting in lower cost missions. This non-traditional approach to launch could open up the market for truly privatizing human spaceflight," the company's statement says.
© 2011 Spaceflight Now Inc.
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Paul Allen, Burt Rutan unveil new air-launch rocket system
12/13/2011 06:25 PM
By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News
SEATTLE--Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan have teamed up for a new winged rocket that would be carried aloft by a gargantuan twin fuselage mothership and then dropped from 30,000 feet for the climb to orbit, they announced Tuesday.
The new rocket will be funded by Allen through a new company known as Stratolaunch and built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif.
The 1.2-million-pound six-engine carrier aircraft, with a wingspan of 385 feet, will be built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., a company founded by Rutan and now owned by Northrop Grumman. Dynetics of Huntsville, Ala., will provide program management and engineering support, along with the hardware used to attach the rocket to the carrier plane.
The Stratolaunch carrier airplane rolls out of the hangar in this animation still. (Credit: Stratolaunch)
Allen, who funded Rutan's development of a small piloted spaceplane built by Scaled that won a $10 million prize in 2004 for becoming the first private-sector manned craft to reach space, said his goal is to lower the cost of launching payloads -- and eventually people -- into low-Earth orbit.
"Our national aspirations for space exploration have been receding," he said during a news conference. "This year saw the end of NASA's space shuttle program. Constellation, which would have taken us back to the moon, has been mothballed as well. For the first time since John Glenn, America cannot fly its own astronauts into space.
"With government-funded spaceflight diminishing, there's a much expanded opportunity for privately funded efforts. ... Today, we stand at the dawn of a radical change in the space launch industry. Stratolaunch will build an air-launch system to give us orbital access to space with greater safety, flexibility and cost effectiveness, both for cargo and for manned missions."
While saying the company faces technical challenges, "by the end of this decade, Stratolaunch will be putting spacecraft into orbit," Allen said. "It will keep America at the forefront of space exploration and give tomorrow's children something to search for in the night sky and dream about. Work has already started on our project at the Mojave Spaceport."
The 120-foot-long two-stage SpaceX rocket will weigh about 490,000 pounds at launch and will be capable of boosting about 13,500 pounds to low-Earth orbit, roughly the same throw weight as a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket.
Paul Allen, left, and aircraft designer Burt Rutan describe the new Stratolaunch rocket system to reporters in Seattle. (Credit: William Harwood/CBS News)
In the near term, the rocket can be used to launch medium-class commercial, NASA and military satellites into orbit. Eventually, company officials envision using the new system to launch manned capsules into orbit.
"Certainly at some point ... there is the capability of this vehicle to loft a medium-size crew, say six people," said Mike Griffin, former NASA administrator and a member of the Stratolaunch board. "This vehicle has the inherent capability to do that. Whether they would visit the space station or visit another yet-to-be-developed facility or just go into space for a few days and come back, I think those scenarios are not laid out yet."
By launching the rocket in mid air, Stratolaunch will be able to avoid weather delays and ground-processing issues, sending satellites to any desired orbit.
But getting a half-million-pound rocket to an altitude of 30,000 feet will require a truly gargantuan carrier aircraft, a twin-fuselage plane that will be one of the largest flying machines ever built.
The Russian Antonov AN-225 cargo plane, the largest operational aircraft in the world, has a wingspan of 290 feet and weighs 1.3 million pounds. Howard Hughes' flying boat, the "Spruce Goose," had a wingspan of 320 feet.
The carrier aircraft envisioned by Scaled Composites will have an even larger wingspan and incorporate systems taken from two 747 jumbo jets. It is similar in appearance to a vastly scaled up version of a system funded by Allen and designed by Rutan as part of the Ansari X-Prize competition.
After winning the X-Prize, Rutan designed a larger, seven-seat version of SpaceShipOne for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which hopes to begin carrying paying customers on relatively short up-and-down sub-orbital flights next year.
Some 500 well-heeled would-be astronauts have reserved seats with Virgin, at $200,000 a ticket, looking forward to the adrenalin rush of launch, five to eight minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this-world view before re-entry and landing at a New Mexico spaceport.
The SpaceX rocket will be dropped from the carrier aircraft at an altitude of 30,000 feet. (Credit: Stratolaunch)
But Allen's rocket is bound for orbit, raising the bar for space tourism and commercial manned spaceflight in general.
"Paul and I pioneered private space travel with SpaceShipOne, which led to Virgin Galactic's commercial suborbital SpaceShipTwo program," Rutan said in a statement. "Now, we will have the opportunity to extend that capability to orbit and beyond. ... We are well aware of the challenges ahead, but we have put together an incredible research team that will draw inspiration from Paul's vision."
Rutan will serve as a member of the Stratolaunch board of directors, acting in an advisory capacity. While the carrier aircraft is based on design studies he carried out over the past two decades, he does not plan to take an active role in the new aircraft's construction.
"I did concept work myself and preliminary design work myself for the last 23 years or so," he told reporters Tuesday. "However, I'm not the responsible designer. I've actually retired. I don't even show up at work anymore."
Asked to provide specifics about the aircraft's capabilities, Rutan declined, saying "I don't think it's wise for this program ... to give the competition our technical numbers."
"It doesn't make sense to me that we would share our technical information with folk who might be competitors of ours until we have to share it," he said. "We have to share it after it's flying, but we don't have to now."
Allen believes the Stratolaunch rocket is a potential game changer, to use NASA Administrator Charles Bolden's pet phrase for the Obama administration's commercial space policy, offering an alternative route to orbit for private companies, universities and, eventually, space tourists.
NASA is partially funding a competition to develop new private-sector launch systems to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
Critics, including Griffin, have questioned whether NASA's commercial space initiative can succeed in the absence of a clearly defined business plan. NASA only plans two or three flights a year to the space station and it's not clear how companies can profit with such a low flight rate in the absence of any other destinations.
One of the competitors -- Boeing -- hopes to eventually use the CST-100 spacecraft it is developing for NASA missions to carry researchers, tourists and others to a commercial space station planned by Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, Nev. Having a second destination is viewed as critical to the program's long-term success, allowing a higher flight rate.
But the Stratolaunch venture is fundamentally different, Griffin said in an interview, in large part because Allen brings the long-term financial commitment necessary to weather failures.
Similar to an Orbital Sciences Pegasus air-launch rocket, the SpaceX version would use a stabilizing wing for the powered climb to space. (Credit: Stratolaunch)
"Why do I think this venture can be a success? I think the crucial factors for any putative commercial space venture are the necessary financial wherewithal to sustain what will inevitably be a lengthy development process relative to other typical market items, and the vision and the resolve to fly through the developmental failures, which inevitably occur," Griffin said.
"I think Paul Allen has demonstrated already ... both of those qualities. I think that makes the crucial difference. In the end, the business case will be dominated by the long-run market and I think it remains for all of us to see what the market for space transportation could be when the operations are more cost effective."
The rocket will be built at the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne, Calif. The carrier aircraft will be built by Scaled Composites in a new hangar at the Mojave Spaceport that is already under construction. The aircraft will need a 12,000-foot-long runway and it will have the ability to fly some 1,300 miles to reach an appropriate launch site.
"Scaled is all about achieving milestones and pursuing breakthroughs, and this project offers both -- building the largest airplane in the world, and achieving the manufacturing breakthroughs that will enable Scaled to accomplish it," Doug Shane, president of Scaled Composites, said in a news release.
"We are thrilled to be a part of this development program. We anticipate significant hiring of engineering, manufacturing, and support staff in the near and medium term."
As for the rocket, SpaceX already holds contracts valued at some $1.6 billion to deliver cargo to the space station using the company's Falcon 9 booster and Dragon capsules. A second test flight is planned for Feb. 7, with the start of routine cargo deliveries expected later next year.
SpaceX also is competing to build a manned spacecraft as part of a NASA competition to develop private-sector access to space in the wake of the space shuttle's retirement.
That effort is independent of the Stratolaunch initiative. The new rocket is a less-powerful version of the Falcon 9 used for NASA missions and does not compete for the same family of payloads.
Griffin said the new system is an evolutionary, not revolutionary, step forward. But air launch offers clear advantages that will help ensure success, including quick turnaround.
"It's an approach that offers some very substantial operational flexibility, much reduced (launch site) requirements, freedom from a lot of the limitations that come from launching with land-based ranges, the ability to deal with weather scenarios that we can't when we're parked at Vandenberg (Air Force Base, Calif.) or the Cape."
But it also comes with its own limitations.
"Payloads will have trouble growing (in size)," Griffin said. "The airplane is as big as the airplane is, so it has its plusses and minuses. It's a little bit different from what folks are used to seeing. But it is not a new concept, it is not untried and it's one that we think will offer some significant operational efficiencies."
© 2011 William Harwood/CBS News
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