Stratolaunch Carrier Plane Rolls Out for 1st Time

[Woxof38]

http://www.space.com/37046-stratolaunch ... llout.html

The colossal Stratolaunch carrier plane rolled out of its hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, today (May 31) to undergo fueling tests. It's the first public look at the full craft —which is designed to launch rockets into orbit from the sky — since construction began.

[crazyaviator]

Must be one helluva strong and rigid centre section !!

[goingnowherefast]

Capable of dramatically varying loads too. Must create a lot of lift when empty. Then is probably the heaviest part of the craft when carrying a payload, plus now adding lots of parasite drag.

[leftoftrack]

With the Falcon heavy about to go on line, this project is dead in the water. the first trip into space costs $60m every trip after that cost $200 000 in fuel (of course there is the cost of inspections)