Ship the world's largest rocket carrier

On May 31, Stratolaunch aircraft of Vulcan Aerospace airline company invested by billionaire Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. This is a series of aircraft built to compete with other space companies in launching satellites into orbit, the Washington Post said.

The construction of this aircraft was carried out silently at Mojave Aerospace Airport, California, USA. With wingspan of more than 117m - longer than the size of a football field, with a height of 15m, this is the largest aircraft in the world.

When fuel is not pumped, the aircraft's weight is up to 226 tons and has a capacity of 113 tons of fuel. With two parts, Stratolaunch plane shape differs from previous giant aircraft models. This is a combination of engines, landing gear, electronic system and many other parts from two Boeing 747 aircraft. Stratolaunch is equipped with 28 wheels and 6 747 aircraft engines. The aircraft case is made of light composite material.

Stratolaunch aircraft is designed to carry a rocket and has a load of up to 250 tons, equal to the volume of SpaceX's Falcon 9 missiles that can launch from the ground.

Last October, Stratolaunch Systems partnered with Orbital ATK to launch missiles carrying some 453kg Pegasus XL small satellites onto orbit. These missiles will be attached to Stratolaunch's body and launched into the atmosphere when the aircraft is at a height of more than 10,000 meters.

Aircraft with wingspan more than 117m, height 15m.

"With an airport-like operation and rapid turning ability, aerial rocket launch is more efficient and economical than ground- based launch," Vulcan Aerospace company representative said.

As for Allen billionaire, his goal is to launch low orbit satellites (Low Earth Orbit). He and a number of other investors, like Richard Branson and Virgin Orbit, expect to reduce the cost of launching small-size satellites into space, helping to add new ways to popularize the Internet globally.

'When access to such space, improvements will follow each other in an unprecedented way , ' Allen said in a press release a year ago.

More than 10 years ago, Allen had set expectations for the revolution in space tourism when funding SpaceShipOne which later became the world's first manned commercial spacecraft launched into orbit.

This project also received the Ansari X Prize private spacecraft with a bonus of 10 million USD. After that, Allen sold SpaceShipOne's technology copyrights Richard Branson and pursued other projects that were typical of the return to the world's largest aircraft Stratolaunch.

30 years ago, computer revolution helped explore the endless potential of people , "Allen wrote. 20 years ago, the advent of the web with smartphones has helped billions of people overcome their geographical and commercial barriers. Now, the deep access to low orbit space also opens a similar revolution. '

'In the near future, we will conduct testing of aircraft at Mojave Air & Space Port space port. This will be the first line of this model, so we will be particularly cautious during testing, giving priority to the safety of pilots, crew and employees. Expected, Stratolaunch will present the first satellite launch in early 2019 '.