3 ms·

Do you really gain much from a carrier plane if you want to reach orbital velocity? LEO velocity being ~18,000mph, and any realistic carrier plane going much sl

• InclinedPlane 15y ago
  I'll just link this instead of duplicating a response here: http://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/nbb6u/combine_all_the_things_paul_allen_announced/c37r1yy http://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/nbb6u/combine_all_the... There are some pretty big advantages, but speed isn't a big part of it.
• randallsquared 15y ago
  One thing you gain is less friction. Fifty percent of the atmosphere by mass is below 18,000 feet, per wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth#Pressure_and_thickness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth#Pressure_an...
• StuffMaster 15y ago
  You can use a much smaller rocket due to the launch altitude. Notice how ground-launched rockets go straight up for quite a ways.
• bazookaBen 15y ago
  i did a thesis on air-launched systems. Can't save that much on the orbital velocities. The main takeaway is the capability to launch on-demand, from different locations. In which case it suddenly becomes a logistical challenge : i.e how do i prep the system to launch X rockets with short turnaround. Bear in mind that the payload is limited by what the carrier aircraft can hold. Either use an existing plane and retrofit like what Orbital does , or build an entirely new plane. There's a bunch of heavily funded startups trying to launch small payloads into orbit, which is always interesting to watch.