'Dream team' of Musk Rutan team up for giant air-launched space launch system

摘要

Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has teamed up with Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites to construct a new winged manned rocket which would be launched into orbit at 30,000ft from a six-engine 385ft wingspan 'mothership1. The carrier aircraft, which will need a 12,000ft runway to take-off, will be constructed by Scaled Composites while the rocket fitted with a multistage booster will be built bv SpaceX and operated by a new company called Stratolaunch Systems. The companies plan to have the first flights within five years.