Paul Allen Launches Commercial Spaceship Project 152
smitty777 writes "The phrase 'Where do you want to go today?' takes on a whole new meaning as Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and the world's 57th richest man in the world, looks to create a new spaceship company. Stratolaunch Systems plans to bring 'airport like operations' to the world of private space travel. Partnering with Burt Rutan, the plan is to field a test within five years and commercially available flights within ten. Spacecraft will be air-launched from a giant, six-engined aircraft. There is more information available on the Stratolaunch homepage."
Re:Where do you want to go, toady? (Score:3, Interesting)
Allen is a patent troll, and human trash. If he had no money, he'd have no friends at all.
Branson is a shy, yet gregarious and likable kook. He actually has good intentions - not just an empty egotism.
It's no wonder that folks wanting to take Scaled Composites work on Spaceship One to a commercial venture, sought out Virgin, rather than the man who even Bill Gates can't stand.
Re:Why not use a balloon? (Score:5, Interesting)
Getting into orbit isn't about altitude - it's about velocity. If you look at the energetics of any rocket, about 95% of the energy produced goes into the kinetic energy of velocity - with only about 5% going into the potential energy of increased altitude. Having a jet impart the initial ~600mph to the rocket stage is a huge savings, particularly given the non-linear nature of the propellant economics.
Re:Why not use a balloon? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have wondered why we don't just use massive helium balloons to carry rockets much closer to space
Check out JP Aerospace [jpaerospace.com] who have been working on the "Airship to Orbit" concept.
Atmospheric airships using both buoyancy and lift go from ground to 140K feet. There they dock with "Dark Sky Stations" where cargo is transferred to the massive airship-to-orbit craft that can only exist at this altitude and will use buoyancy to rise to 200K feet, then uses electric propulsion to speed up over several days to orbital velocity.