Watch a 747 airplane launch a rocket, mid-flight, to deliver ten small satellites to orbit

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/19/watch-a-747-airplane-launch-a-rocket-mid-flight-to-deliver-ten-small-satellites-to-orbit.html

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There is another launch platform using a similar format, from a smaller wide-body jet. Cant remember their name - somebody jump in with a link.

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Moonraker.

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Great, just what we need, more satellites stealing my brain-thoughts, driving up my tin-foil-hat budget, ruining my social life, making my skin wrinkle and hair turn grey. . . .

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Are you thinking of the Pegasus from Orbital Science (now Northrop Grumman) using a solid rocket booster launched from a Lockheed Tristar?

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Yes that’s it –– Pegasus is the branding.

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Fox one, indicates launch of a semi-active radar-guided missile.
Fox two, indicates launch of an infrared-guided missile.
Fox three, indicates launch of an active radar-guided missile.

I wonder what the Brevity Code is for, “I’ve just launched an orbital insertion vehicle”?

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It would have to be FireFox… but “You must think… in Russian.”

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Gant, can you fly that plane? Really fly it?

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tenor-18

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isn’t quaint that even high tech devices have patent drawings with little hand drawn scripty notations

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There was Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch, which died with him. I think his sister is in charge of his assets now. They built a heavy lift launcher from two 747’s, but I think the actual rockets were to come from Scaled Composites. The shuttering of this firm seems like the right decision, but it was a dream of Allen’s.

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I remember that concept with the dual 747 fuselages - it was not that. It was the small L1011 mid size wide body like plane with the missile under the fuselage.

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Then probably the “Pegasus” ? I seem to recall there just wasn’t really a mission for that rocket…I think they were maybe hoping it to be an ASAT weapon candidate?? I dunno, long time ago :slight_smile:

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here is the wikipedia summary:

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The original Stratolaunch was going to team up with SpaceX. It would have dropped a four or five engine version of the Falcon 9, but the partnership foundered when SpaceX realised it couldn’t devote resources to two variants of the Falcon 9.

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The Orbital Sciences (later Orbital ATK, now Northrup-Grumman Innovation Systems) Pegasus was the word’s first privately-developed commercial orbital launcher, developed way back in 1982.

Its three solid-fuel stages, though similar to ICBM designs, were custom-designed for Orbital by Morton Thiokol (later bought by ATK, then part of Orbital ATK, now also a Northrup-Grumman division)., with a wing built by Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites.

It’s still operational today, but its limited capacity, very limited mission cadence (1-2 flights per year) and a price of about $50M per launch make it a very tough sell in today’s market.

(By contrast, LauncherOne is currently projected to cost $12M per launch, about the same as the Rocket Lab Electron, though they both carry less mass than the Pegasus.)

There are a couple other small-sat and microsat launchers that plan to launch smaller rockets from small (fighter-sized) carrier aircraft currently under development, and of course the now-revived Stratolaunch is looking to build a variety of launchers (including a small space place) to be dropped from its humongous Roc carrier aircraft, already flying.

And the USAF once tried dropping a Minuteman ICBM out the back of a C-130 cargo plane. :slight_smile:

By and large, though, aerial drop launch isn’t a very promising method. Its obvious advantages are mostly negated by other less obvious factors.

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