Stratolaunch Considering Using Multiple Launch Vehicles

摘要

Stratolaunch Systems, the air-launch venture backed by billionaire Paul Allen, is considering using the giant aircraft it is developing to launch several different types of launch vehicles, and as a result is pausing work on a crewed spacecraft. In a presentation at the 31st Space Symposium here April 13, Chuck Beames, president of Seattle-based Vulcan Aerospace, the parent company of Stratolaunch Systems, said the company has decided to examine alternative vehicles that could be launched from its aircraft. Stratolaunch is building an aircraft that will be among the largest in the world in terms of wingspan. The plane, under construction at a company hangar in Mojave, California, was designed to carry aloft a rocket capable of launching medium-class payloads. Orbital ATK is developing the rocket, which uses solid-fuel lower stages and an upper stage powered by RL-10 engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne.