founded 2011 headquarters seattle washington key people paul allen chuck beames parent vulcan inc. 1 website stratolaunchsystems.com artist s depiction of stratolaunch carrier at apogee just before launching spacecraft center vehicle into orbit . stratolaunch systems a subsidiary of vulcan aerospace is a space transportation venture developing a new air launch to orbit system with its corporate headquarters located in seattle washington . 2 the project was begun in 2010 and officially announced in december 2011 by microsoft co founder paul g. allen and scaled composites founder burt rutan who had previously collaborated on the creation of spaceshipone . 3 in 2015 stratolaunch systems was placed under the supervision of paul allen s new company vulcan aerospace a subsidiary of vulcan inc. 4 the project is a mobile launch system with three primary components ; a carrier aircraft being built by scaled composites a multi stage payload launch vehicle which would be launched at high altitude into space from under the carrier aircraft plus a mating and integration system by dynetics . 5 2015 press releases from stratolaunch systems have targeted a first test flight for 2016 . 6 contents 1 history 2 carrier aircraft 3 launch vehicle 3.1 manned launch vehicle 4 facilities 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the project was started almost a year before the public announcement was made . development costs were initially projected to be us 300 million in 2011 . 7 dynetics actually began work in early 2010 and had approximately 40 employees working on the project as of december 2011 update . dynetics was cited as responsible for the total systems engineering integration and testing which includes aerodynamics loads and interfaces . 8 it was announced the spacex corporation was also already working on the design for the rocket powered space vehicle components of the system . the collaboration with spacex had ended by 2012 . in a 2015 interview chuck beames president of vulcan aerospace and now supervisor of stratolaunch systems explained spacex was a partner and like a lot of partnerships it was just determined that it was best we went our separate ways different ambitions . we were interested in their engines but elon and his team they re about going to mars and we re just in a different place and so i think it was a parting of the ways that was amicable . 9 stratolaunch systems completed its first 88 000 sq. ft. composites production building in october 2012 . in february 2013 the company completed construction of its 92 640 sq. ft. carrier assembly hangar and operations facilities at the mojave air and space port . the carrier aircraft was originally projected to make its first test flight in 2015 . by october 2013 the first flight of the carrier aircraft had been pushed back until 2016 with the first flight of the air launched rocket expected in 2018 . 10 in 2014 stratolaunch announced that it was considering multiple launch vehicle options over a range of satellite sizes and that some development work on the orbital launch vehicle has been slowed down to focus on completion of the carrier aircraft . 11 in 2015 stratolaunch systems was placed under the supervision of paul allen s new company vulcan aerospace 4 12 a subsidiary of vulcan inc. vulcan aerospace president chuck beames stated vulcan aerospace is the company within vulcan that plans and executes projects to shift how the world conceptualizes space travel through cost reduction and on demand access . vulcan aerospace has its heritage in spaceshipone and oversees the stratolaunch systems project 13 later in the year in november gary wentz stepped down as president and ceo of stratolaunch systems to join united launch alliance to lead human launch services for ula . vulcan ended its contract with orbital atk in mid 2015 and indicated that a decision on a new rocket for the stratolaunch carrier aircraft would be made in late 2015 . 14 carrier aircraft edit wingspan comparison of the stratolaunch carrier with other large airplanes main article scaled composites stratolaunch allen and rutan stated that stratolaunch s carrier aircraft would have a wingspan of 117 m 385 ft or about 6.1 m 20 ft longer than an apollo era saturn v and about half as long as the hindenburg class airships . this would make it the largest airplane by wingspan to ever fly . it will weigh in at over 540 000 kg 1 200 000 lb including the fully fueled launch vehicle and will require a runway at least 12 000 feet long . the carrier plane will be powered by six 205 296 kn 46 000 66 500 lbf thrust range jet engines sourced from two used 747 400s that were cannibalized for engines avionics flight deck landing gear and other proven systems to reduce initial development costs . the carrier is designed to have a range of 2 200 km 1 200 nmi when flying an air launch mission . in august 2015 vulcan aerospace president chuck beame now supervisor of stratolaunch systems said in 2016 i think we ll have the aircraft flying ... 80 percent is fabricated now ... about 40 percent assembled ... we should have final assembly done the end of this year or early next year . for the next few years we ll do all of our test flights out of mojave ... there s already an air corridor that s established by the air force for this kind of stuff anyway and we ll fly out over the pacific . 9 while there has been no official announcement on what the company will call the carrier aircraft there have been persistent rumors of it being referred to in house as the stratolauncher . 15 16 17 launch vehicle edit originally spacex was intended to provide a liquid fuelled rocket to serve as the means of lifting the stratolaunch payload delivery vehicle into space by launching it at high altitude from under the carrier aircraft but collaboration with spacex was abandoned in late 2012 . 18 in november 2012 stratolaunch retained orbital atk on a study contract to develop and evaluate several alternative configurations for the vehicle to be launched from the carrier aircraft . 19 by early 2013 orbital atk was under contract to develop the pegasus ii for the stratolaunch space vehicle launch component the pegasus ii was expected to be able to deliver up to 13 500 pounds 6 100 kg to low earth orbit . 20 in may 2014 it was announced that the pegasus ii solid fuel rocket was not achieving design economic goals and that stratolaunch had contracted with aerojet rocketdyne to build the rl10c 1 dual motor liquid fuel engines for the launch vehicle . 21 manned launch vehicle edit main article dream chaser shortly after losing a nasa contract competition to spacex and boeing in september 2014 22 sierra nevada corporation announced it had conceptualized a launch system that combined a scaled down version of the company s dream chaser space plane with the stratolaunch systems high altitude air launch system . 23 in late november 2014 vulcan aerospace released the results of the snc stratolaunch space transportation architecture which indicated that a reduced size dream chaser in conjunction with the stratolaunch based launch system could provide a number of unique mission capabilities . the proposed system would have an outbound range of 1 900 kilometers ; 1 200 miles 1 000 nmi away from the airport where the aircraft departed which would allow launches to any given orbital plane for rendezvous with another object in low earth orbit on a daily basis . the launch vehicle in the study was a modified air launched orbital atk rocket that is approximately 37 m 120 ft in length . the manned space plane payload would be a 75 percent sized version of the dream chaser vehicle previously proposed to nasa while maintaining the relative outer mold line 6.9 m 22.5 ft in length with a wingspan of 5.5 m 18.2 ft which could carry 2 to 3 crewmembers plus a variety of scientific and research payloads . 24 facilities edit in 2011 stratolaunch systems signed a 20 year lease agreement with the kern county airport authority mojave california for the lease of 20 acres 8.1 ha at the mojave air and space port to build production and launch facilities . 25 as of 2015 stratolaunch has built a 8 200 m2 88 000 sq ft fabrication hangar and a 8 607 m2 92 640 sq ft assembly hangar located close to scaled composites . 26 the first of two manufacturing buildings the 88 000 square foot facility to be used to construct the composite sections of the wing and fuselage sections was opened for production in october 2012 two months ahead of schedule and on budget . 27 28 stratolaunch completed their second mojave building the very large hangar facility for the stratolaunch carrier aircraft in february 2013 . 29 see also edit white knight one carrier aircraft white knight two carrier aircraft comparison of orbital launch systems airborne aircraft carrier lockheed c 5 galaxy launch of lgm 30 minuteman north american x 15 earliest air launched crewed sub orbital spacecraft launcherone virgin galactic s smaller scale proposal similar to stratolaunch s orbital sciences pegasus a similar but smaller scale system skylon references edit mecham michael ; frank morring jr. december 20 2011 . allen places big bet on air launches . aviation week . retrieved december 23 2011 . dynetics has been under contract to vulcan for almost a year and has some 40 employees on the project so far . spacex joined more recently and the overall team is still working through details of how to progress toward its 2016 first launch . http spacenews.com paul allens vulcan aerospace ready to stretch its wings http www.universetoday.com 91737 revolutionary air launched commercial rocket to orbit announced by microsoft billionaire paul allen a b ellie zolfagharifard 17 april 2015 . paul allen launches vulcan aerospace microsoft founder says new company will get biggest plane in history off the ground and it could launch astronauts into space . daily mail london . retrieved 2015 08 03 . http www.huntsvillenewswire.com 2011 12 13 dynetics build major system space launch vehicle http www.dailymail.co.uk sciencetech article 3184219 world s biggest plane launch 2016 designers reveal megaplane send astronauts orbit using mini shuttle.html http www.thespacereview.com article 1994 1 kelley mike december 15 2011 . dynetics to provide systems integration for new commercial space launch system . huntsville times . retrieved december 18 2011 . a b http www.spaceflightinsider.com missions commercial update vulcan aerospace stratolaunch http aviationweek.com blog stratolaunch quietly making progress foust jeff 2015 04 15 . stratolaunch considering using multiple launch . space news . retrieved 25 april 2015 . http www.bizapedia.com wa vulcan aerospace corporation.html http www.space.com 29117 vulcan aerospace paul allen private spaceflight.html stratolaunch s plans up in the air jeff foust spacenews 18 november 2015 accessed 28 november 2015 . http robbreport.com aviation stratolauncher will be worlds largest plane http forums.x plane.org index.php app downloads & showfile 16253 http www.thespacereview.com article 2198 1 dan leone 30 november 2012 . orbital sciences replaces spacex on stratolaunch project . space news . orbital sciences replaces spacex on stratolaunch project . spacenews.com . november 30 2012 . retrieved december 1 2012 . bergin chris may 25 2013 . stratolaunch and orbital the height of air launch . nasa spaceflight . retrieved may 24 2013 . https www.rocket.com article aerojet rocketdyne provide upper stage propulsion revolutionary eagles launch system nasa chooses american companies to transport u.s. astronauts to international space station . nasa . september 16 2014 . retrieved september 18 2014 . sierra nevada and stratolaunch team up on dream chaser space plane . nbc news . october 1 2014 . retrieved october 1 2014 . gebhardt chris november 26 2014 . snc