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Air Launch To Orbit
Air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO) is the method of launching smaller rockets at altitude from a heavier conventional horizontal-takeoff aircraft, to carry satellites to low Earth orbit. It is a follow-on development of air launches of experimental aircraft that began in the late 1940s. This method, when employed for orbital payload insertion, presents significant advantages over conventional vertical rocket launches, particularly because of the reduced mass, thrust, cost of the rocket, geographical factors, and natural disasters. Air launching has also been developed for sub-orbital spaceflight. In 2004 the Ansari X Prize $10 Million purse was won by a team led by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, launching the SpaceShipOne from the purpose-built White Knight carrier aircraft. The first air-launch-to-orbit was a test launch of the ASM-135 ASAT antisatellite rocket, the first commercial air-launch-to-orbit took place on 5 April 1990 with a Northrop Grumman Pegasus. Advantages The pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lockheed TriStar Launches Pegasus With Space Technology 5
Lockheed (originally spelled Loughead) may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Lockheed Corporation, a former American aircraft manufacturer * Lockheed Martin, formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta ** Lockheed Martin Aeronautics ** Lockheed Martin Space Systems * Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company People * Flora Haines Loughead (1855-1943), American writer, farmer, miner * The brothers who founded the original Lockheed Corporation: ** Allan Loughead (1889–1969), American aviation pioneer ** Malcolm Loughead, American aviation pioneer Other uses * Lockheed (comics), a Marvel Comics character * Lockheed Martin Transit Center, in Sunnyvale, California See also * Lochhead, a surname * Lougheed (other), Lougheed, a surname {{Disambig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems
Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in February 9, 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Orbital ATK designed, built, and delivered rocket engines, military vehicles, firearms, autocannons, missiles, ammunition, precision-guided munitions, satellites, missile approach warning systems, launch vehicles and spacecraft. The company was acquired by Northrop Grumman on June 6, 2018. The former Orbital ATK operations were renamed Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and operated as a division until January 1, 2020 when a reorganization merged the operations into the company's other divisions. History A merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and the defense and aerospace divisions of Alliant Techsystems (ATK) was announced on April 29, 2014. The two companies had collaborated on several previous projects, including the use of 400 ATK rocket motors in Orbital's launch v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CNES
CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Space Centre and the Guiana Space Centre. The president of CNES is Philippe Baptiste. CNES is a member of Institute of Space, its Applications and Technologies. It is Europe's largest national organization of its type. History CNES was established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961. It is the world's third oldest space agency, after the Soviet space program (Russia), and NASA (United States). CNES was responsible for the training of French astronauts, until the last active CNES astronauts transferred to the European Space Agency in 2001. , CNES is working with Germany and a few other governments to start a modest research effort with the hope to propose a LOX/methane reusable launch vehicle by mid-2015. If built, flight testing w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Towed Glider Air-Launch System
Towed glider air-launch system (abbv. TGALS) is a NASA-designed two-stage air-launched reusable launch system currently in development at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center. The system uses a glider, tow plane, and rocket and is designed to carry small satellites to orbit. Both the glider and tow plane are reusable. The system, compared to other designs such as Swiss Space Systems' SOAR spaceplane and Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo vehicle, is launched from a glider. This design emulates an air-launched multistage rocket with two recoverable stages: the tow plane and the glider itself. Design The system comprises three large components: a tow plane, a glider, and a rocket. The tow plane, a conventional small aircraft, carries the glider up to about before releasing the towline and flying back. The glider, carrying its own hybrid or solid rocket motor, will ignite its engine to glide higher than the tow plane's maximum altitude. Following burnout of its rocket, the gl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical research. AFRC operates some of the most advanced aircraft in the world and is known for many aviation firsts, including supporting the first crewed airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight (Bell X-1), highest speed by a crewed, powered aircraft (North American X-15), the first pure digital fly-by-wire aircraft (F-8 DFBW), and many others. AFRC operated a second site next to Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, known as Building 703, once the former Rockwell International/North American Aviation production facility. There, AFRC housed and operated several of NASA's Science Mission Directorate aircraft including SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy), a DC-8 Flying Laboratory, a Gulfstream C-20A UAVSAR and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generation Orbit Launch Services
Generation Orbit Launch Services (GO) is an American aerospace company based in Atlanta, Georgia that is developing the technology for launch services for small payloads. The air-launch approach developed by GO and its partners offers flexible launch capabilities, poised to reduce fixed infrastructure needs, launch costs, and the time from contract signature to launch for government and industry customers alike. History GO was founded on April 25, 2011 as a subsidiary company of SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. In 2013, GO competed in the NewSpace Business Plan Competition (BPC), winning first place and the $100,000 prize. The BPC was administered by the Space Frontier Foundation and held at Stanford University. Following the Business Plan Competition, GO was selected in September 2013 for NASA's Enabling eXploration and Technology (NEXT) contract, with an award of $2.1 million. GOLauncher family Generation Orbit is developing the GOLauncher family, a series of high-speed flight a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ARCA Space Corporation
Romanian Cosmonautics and Aeronautics Association (), also known as ARCAspace, is an aerospace company based in Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania. It builds rockets, high-altitude balloons, and unmanned aerial vehicles. It was founded in 1999 as a non-governmental organization in Romania by the Romanian engineer and entrepreneur Dumitru Popescu and other rocket and aeronautics enthusiasts. Since then, ARCA has launched two stratospheric rockets and four large-scale stratospheric balloons including a cluster balloon. It was awarded two governmental contracts with the Romanian government and one contract with the European Space Agency. ARCASpace is currently developing several rocket systems, both orbital and suborbital, under the EcoRocket program. These vehicles include the CER rocket systems, the EcoRocket Demonstrator, Nano, 5 & Heavy, and the A1 strategic anti-ballistic interceptor. ARCA has yet to launch a vehicle above the Karman line, or sent a payload to orbit, with the majority o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaled Composites Stratolaunch
The Scaled Composites Model 351 Stratolaunch or Roc is an aircraft built by Scaled Composites for Stratolaunch Systems to carry air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO) rockets, and subsequently repurposed to offer air launch hypersonic flight testing after a change of ownership. It was announced in December 2011, rolled out in May 2017, and flew for the first time on April 13, 2019, shortly after the death of founder Paul Allen. The aircraft features a twin-fuselage design and the longest wingspan ever flown, at , surpassing the Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" flying boat of . The Stratolaunch is intended to carry a payload and has a maximum takeoff weight. Stratolaunch ceased operations in May 2019, shortly after the first flight of the Roc, and placed all company assets, including the aircraft, for sale by June 2019. In October 2019, Cerberus Capital Management acquired Stratolaunch Systems, including the Stratolaunch aircraft. Stratolaunch announced in December 2019 that it w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LauncherOne
LauncherOne was a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed and flown by Virgin Orbit that had operational flights from 2021 to 2023, after being in development from 2007 to 2020. It was an air-launched rocket, designed to carry smallsat payloads of up to into Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), following air launch from a carrier aircraft at high altitude. The rocket was carried to the upper atmosphere on a modified Boeing 747-400, named '' Cosmic Girl'', and released over ocean. Initial work on the program was done by Virgin Galactic, another Virgin Group subsidiary, before a separate entity — Virgin Orbit — was formed in 2017 to complete development and operate the launch service provider business separately from the passenger-carrying Virgin Galactic business. The first successful flight was on 17 January 2021, which delivered a payload of 10 CubeSats to low Earth orbit (LEO). Three further launches successfully reached orbit. An initial test flight was unsucces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit was a company within the Virgin Group that provided launch services for small satellites. The company was formed in 2017 as a spin-off of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism venture to develop and market the LauncherOne rocket, which had previously been a project under Virgin Galactic. LauncherOne was a two-stage launch vehicle, air-launched from a Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, designed to deliver 300 kg of payload to low Earth orbit. On December 30, 2021, Virgin Orbit underwent a SPAC merger with NextGen Acquisition Corp, and became a publicly traded company (symbol VORB) at the NASDAQ stock exchange. Upon listing Virgin Orbit was valued at $3.7 billion. LauncherOne made six flights from 2020 to 2023, resulting in four successes and two failures. After the second failure in January 2023 and amid an inability to secure additional financing, the company laid off staff and suspended operations in March 2023, finalizing Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NOTS-EV-1 Pilot
The NOTS-EV-1 Pilot, better known as NOTSNIK (pronounced nots''nik'' a play on "sputnik") was an expendable launch system and anti-satellite weapon developed by the United States Navy's United States Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS). NOTSNIK began as an in-house project using available NOTS funds. The Advanced Research Projects Agency later supplied some funds for the program. The program involved creating transistorized sensors to detect nuclear explosions from the Operation Argus tests. Ten were launched during July and August 1958, all of which failed. It was the first air-launched rocket to be used for an orbital launch attempt; however, none was recorded as having reached orbit. Following the third orbital launch attempt a NOTS engineer at the tracking station in Christchurch, New Zealand reported receiving a weak signal from the spacecraft; This was never confirmed, and the launches were not catalogued as having reached orbit. The Pilot rocket was part of Project Pilot. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
