Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan have reunited to develop the next generation space travel.
At a press conference in Seattle on Tuesday, Allen and Rutan unveiled their new company, Stratolaunch Systems, which will develop a giant aircraft that would put spaceships into orbit, rather than lifting them off from a launch pad.
The Silicon Valley tycoons claimed that the proposed revolutionary spaceship would be the largest aircraft ever built, which would be capable of orbital missions with quick turnarounds, greater safety, and better cost-effectiveness than anything previously launched.
Allen and Rutan collaborated in 2004 on the creation of SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded spacecraft to leave the earth's atmosphere. The space flight revolution now enters a new era just months after NASA ended its 30-year space shuttle program.
The Stratolaunch plans to launch unmanned rockets from high-flying aircraft, and eventually undertake manned missions that could ferry cargo for the commercial satellite industry as well as the International Space Station.
First test flights are scheduled to begin in 2016. If found successful, it will enable new orbital missions as well as break the logjam of missions queued up for launch facilities and a chance at space.
Stratolaunch Systems will build a mobile launch system with three primary components: A carrier aircraft, developed by Scaled Composites; 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 in Huntsville, Alabama.
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 12,000-feet runway.
The plane will be built in a Stratolaunch hangar which will soon be under construction at the Mojave Air and Spaceport.
Allen said this was his dream-project in private space flight "after the success of SpaceShipOne - to offer a flexible, orbital space delivery system. 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," according to the 58-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Rutan, who 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," he added.
Gary Wentz, a former chief engineer at NASA, is leading the Stratolaunch Systems team as CEO and President. Stratolaunch Systems' corporate headquarters is located in Huntsville, Alabama.
Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, also a Stratolaunch Board member, told reporters that "this technology has the potential to someday make spaceflight routine by removing many of the constraints associated with ground launched rockets."
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