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alphagusta t1_j4h34fc wrote

Reply to comment by 7ECA in The Stratolaunch Roc, the largest aircraft ever flown, has just completed a 6-hour test flight. It aims to be a platform to launch reusable hypersonic craft from an altitude of 10 km by lughnasadh

It had a good answer to start off with

The initial development of it was to airlaunch a variant of the now worlds leading current launch vehicle Falcon 9

SpaceX then decided it would focus purely on the logistical needs of its ground launched Falcon 9 as the 2 versions were quickly becoming vastly more different in design to make it feasible

Stratolaunch then had other rocket concepts that it could take but none of them stuck.

It's a victim of competition, its biggest rival is Virign Orbit with its much more feasibly converted 747 instead of a brand new aircraft

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7ECA t1_j4hb8y4 wrote

Yep it's the famous 'law of the excluded middle'. The B747 is almost as capable and infinitely cheaper because they're ubiquitous. SpaceX has the ability to lift payloads that are financially interesting. This thing was in between the two and was knowable from the start.

I think Paul Allen was a great man but this was not his greatest moment

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Drak_is_Right t1_j4hi2pi wrote

I think he might have paid for his own launch vehicle development, but he died so they scrapped that?

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7ECA t1_j4htsr5 wrote

I believe that the people managing his estate sold off the aircraft and the program

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todd10k t1_j4iezct wrote

But wouldn't this vehicle also be capable of lifting much heavier payloads to the stratosphere than a simple 747?

Also, Lets see his card.

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DRF19 t1_j4hhbdm wrote

Just randomly saw the Virgin Orbit 747 land and taxi at Fort Lauderdale airport the other day

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jamesbideaux t1_j4hwg02 wrote

one of the main issue is that air launching requires a lot of the rocket you are launching to be protection from the different stresses (in terms of direction) of flight.

It might turn out that we can do better but currently airlaunched rockets are inferior to ground launched rockets.

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