Huge Flying Launch System, Next Rutan/Allen Project

Where are Burt Rutan / Paul Allen going after their present project is up and running on it's own? Well how about this monster! A gigantic 385-foot wing span, 544-tonne plane powered by six 747 engines that will serve as a flying launch platform for 490,000 pound orbital rockets.

The reason it looks so familiar is Rutan built SpaceShipOne, the ship that made the first private suborbital flight, as well as its http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmothership, WhiteKnightOne and the follow on versions for Virgin Galactic: WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Of course it will not be a sole effort either, SpaceX will be providing support in the way of boosters for the payload.

Here is a short animated film showing how the Stratolaunch System will work.





complete Gizmodo article here

Burt Rutan to Retire!

According to the L.A. Times via Boing Boing, aviation pioneer Burt Rutan is retiring at 67. Rutan designed the Voyager, which was the first airplane to fly around the world without refueling, and SpaceShipOne, the first private rocket plane ever to put a man into low Earth orbit. In fact Richard Branson, the British billionaire behind Virgin Galactic is using Rutan's rocket design for the spacecraft Branson will use to take tourists on sub orbital flights.

For more on Rutan, check out the LA Time article here or with Wiki article here

Three dead in California spaceport blast

Three people were killed and three others critically injured on Thursday July 27, 2007 - in an explosion at the California testing facilities operated by commercial spaceflight pioneer Burt Rutan.The blast occurred at the Mojave Air and Space Port, where Scaled Composites, the company formed by Rutan, was testing rocket motor components. Two people were killed instantly in the explosion at 1434 local time and four others were rushed to a local hospital. One of those died following surgery. Rutan was the first person to privately put a crewed space craft into space, collecting the XPrize with the feat.

Thanks to Shaun A. Saunders for the post