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On April 13, the Stratolaunch aircraft makes its first flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. (Credit: Stratolaunch) |
by Jeff Foust
Monday, April 15, 2019
The plane, at least, can fly even if the company can not.
On Saturday, the giant Stratolaunch aircraft finally flew over the Mojave air and space port. A little before 7 am local time, the plane hit the runway, as in a series of taxis tests dating back more than a year, the last of which was in January. This time, however, Scaled Composites' test pilot, Evan Thomas, strangled and fired on the stick, and the aircraft took off for the first time.
| "Honestly, I could not have hoped for more during a first flight, especially an airplane of this complexity and singularity," Thomas said. |
For two and a half hours, the aircraft flew over the airport and the surrounding airspace, reaching a maximum altitude of more than 5,000 meters and a top speed of about 300 kilometers to l & # 39; hour. The aircraft then returned to the airport on a low-altitude approach before turning around and landing on the runway.
Thomas and Stratolaunch officials explained the technicalities of the flight during a brief interview with reporters shortly after landing. "The flight itself was smooth, and that's exactly what you want for a first flight," Thomas said. "For the most part, the plane flew as planned."
He noted that he noted "a few things that were not nominal" during the flight, but did not specify their nature. But overall, the plane flew as planned, he said. "Honestly, I could not have hoped for more during a first flight, including a plane of this complexity and uniqueness."
"Overall, we are very pleased with the performance of the Stratolaunch," said Zachary Krevor, vice president of engineering at Stratolaunch. "The flight went really well."
New aircraft on their first flight do not normally receive this level of attention, but most new aircraft do not resemble the Stratolaunch aircraft. The giant aircraft has two fuselages, six jet engines and a 117-meter long wing that makes it the largest aircraft in the world. Nothing like that he had never flown before.
"It was a moving moment for me personally to watch this majestic bird take flight, to see Paul Allen's dream come true before my eyes," said Jean Floyd, CEO of Stratolaunch. "I had imagined this moment for years."
Spectators encourage the take-off of the Stratolaunch aircraft. (credit: Stratolaunch) |
He imagined this moment for years in part because this first flight was to have occurred years ago. When Allen announced his plans for Stratolaunch at the end of 2011, he foresaw that the first flight of the aircraft would take place in 2015, with launches using the aircraft scheduled to begin in 2016 (see "Stratolaunch: SpaceShipThree or Space Goose? ", The Space Review, December 19, 2011).
It is probably not surprising that the development of the aircraft took longer than expected, as these delays are commonplace in major aerospace programs. But Stratolaunch has experienced a degree of upheaval and change much less common since this press conference in December 2011.
| Stratolaunch has seen much less turmoil and change since the December 2011 press conference. |
Originally, Stratolaunch was going to use a derivative of SpaceX's Falcon 9, with four or five engines, instead of nine, in the first leg. This partnership, which included the presence of SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell on Stratolaunch's Board of Directors, has always seemed a little strange: why would SpaceX provide a pitcher to a potential competitor? It was not surprising that SpaceX and Stratolaunch broke up a year after the announcement.
Stratolaunch then turned to Orbital Sciences Corp. (later Orbital ATK and now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems) to develop another medium-class launcher. The Thunderbolt rocket reportedly used ATK solid fuel lower stages and an Aerojet Rocketdyne powered RL10 upper stage. In 2014, around the time Stratolaunch unveiled the Thunderbolt vehicle, the company was planning a first launch of the vehicle in 2018 (see "Air Launch, Big and Small," The Space Review, June 30, 2014).
Two years later, the situation had changed. Thunderbolt was released as Stratolaunch envisioned the growing demand for small satellites, which could more effectively use small rockets. The company was planning at the time to create up to 70 different vehicle configurations that could serve the small business market (see "Inside Stratolaunch," The Space Review, June 20, 2016).
Finally, he returned to what was then called Orbital ATK, but for something much smaller: the venerable Pegasus XL, who launched satellites from his own L-1011 aircraft since the 1990s. stated that the Stratolaunch aircraft could carry up to three Pegasus XL rockets in a single flight, launched at different times at different angles.
However, Stratolaunch was also working on its own launcher projects. In 2017, the company signed a Space Act agreement with NASA to perform engine tests at the Stennis Space Center, while hiring a former SpaceX propulsion manager, Jeff Thornburg. The company spoke little publicly about its plans until last August, when it announced that it was developing its own vehicles. The first, the average launcher, would place up to 3,400 kilograms in orbit, while the medium-heavy launcher, with three first-stage booster nuclei, would place up to 6,000 kilograms in orbit. The company also announced that it was studying a "fully reusable space plane" that would launch a cargo and possibly people, recalling previous studies conducted by Sierra Nevada Corporation on the use of a version of Dream Chaser by this company .
A month later, he revealed details about the engine being developed, called PGA, initials of the company's founder, Paul G. Allen. Once completed, the PGA would produce 200,000 pounds of thrust force and have the highest specific impulse of all engines of this type, although it did not reveal any specific value.
| "We are streamlining operations, focusing on the aircraft and our ability to support a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL jet launch demonstration," said a spokesman for the company in January. |
However, these plans changed after Allen's death in October of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Vulcan, the holding company of Allen's various companies, including Stratolaunch, said immediately after Allen's death that there were plans in place to remedy those efforts, but did not disclose them beyond the fact that no immediate change was expected.
However, changes began in January. Just over a week after the last high-speed taxi test from Stratolaunch to Mojave, the company disbanded its propulsion team and suspended work on the engine and its launchers family. "We are streamlining operations, focusing on the aircraft and our ability to support a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL air launcher demonstration launch," said a spokesman for the company in a statement.
The company has not specified its strategy since this announcement in January. During the brief conversation with reporters, the executives did not say anything about the company's future plans, especially about when, or even if, the plane will fly again. They did not answer any questions during the call, which lasted barely ten minutes.
Relying on the Pegasus XL has the advantage of not forcing the company – probably through Allen's estate – to spend tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars – on a rocket such as the Medium Launch Vehicle and its engine . This is in addition to the hundreds of millions already spent on its unique aircraft.
The disadvantage is that the Pegasus XL has not been able to find a lot of business in recent years, despite the growing interest in small satellites that has spurred the development of dozens of new small launchers. Cost is an important factor: NASA announced in 2014 that it would spend $ 56.3 million launching the satellite Pegasus XL satellite Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON). It's a hard sell for many, given the cheaper launch options, including carpool opportunities for larger rockets.
As a result, NASA has been the only customer of Pegasus XL in recent years. And despite his legacy, including his dozens of consecutive launches, he also ran into problems. This ICON mission, once scheduled for mid-2017, has not yet been launched due to technical issues. At a meeting of an advisory committee in February, a NASA official said his agency hoped to launch the mission in the second quarter, but no date has been set. No other mission is currently on the Pegasus XL manifest.
Stratolaunch executives have already explained that they can conduct national security missions in a reactive manner, including allowing them to deploy a constellation on a single flight by launching three Pegasus rockets on varying trajectories, but the only thing that can be done is to use it. Army keeps other options open for reactive missile launches. smallsats. DARPA used the Rocket Lab Electron rocket to launch a technology demonstration satellite last month. Electron's next mission, later this month, will carry three satellites for the Air Force.
| "Even though he was not here today," said Floyd, "as the plane took off gracefully from the runway, I whispered thanks to Paul for allowing me to participate in this remarkable achievement. . " |
Last week, DARPA announced the selection of three qualified individuals for its DARPA Launch Challenge contest. Vector, Virgin Orbit and an unidentified company in stealth mode (some think that the industry is Astra Space) will launch two launches from two different launch sites in early 2020. Each company will receive $ 2 million if the first one launch is successful and will be eligible for prizes ranging from $ 8 to $ 10 million if they make the second launch.
For more than seven years between the announcement of Stratolaunch and the first flight of the aircraft, many changes have taken place in the space industry, including the transition to smaller satellites that make this aircraft oversized (and probably too expensive ) to be served efficiently. In comparison, the Virgin Orbit airlift system uses a modified Boeing 747 – after initially considering using the same WhiteKnightTwo used by the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft – whose acquisition and modification was probably much less expensive.
However, as long as Paul Allen supported the company, it could cope with these market changes and its business plan. "His vision is to change the human condition," Floyd said about Allen at a roundtable in 2017. "He does not want to make money. He's not trying to get a return on investment. "
"I'm not saying that he wants to lose money," he added. "But did not Paul Allen ever talk about how much money will I earn if I succeed?" With Allen's no longer with us, however, such questions were probably asked, and answered, explaining the decision to abandon the launchers' development.
Floyd did not talk about the future of the company during the phone call with reporters, but acknowledged the absence of the man who had launched Stratolaunch. "I had never imagined the experience without Paul next to me," he said as he watched the plane take off. "Even though he was not here today, as the plane was freeing off the runway, I whispered a thank you to Paul for allowing me to take part in this remarkable achievement."
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