So much for Burt Rutan’s “retirement.” Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on Tuesday announced he is teaming with the legendary aerospace designer to launch a new space-tourism company called Stratolaunch Systems that plans, among other accomplishments, to design and build “the largest aircraft ever constructed” – which will be used to carry a 490,000-pound rocket to an altitude of about 30,000 feet before an air launch into orbit around the earth.
The billionaire investor has established his new company in Huntsville, Alabama, which will be the base of operations for a space tourism venture with presences in several U.S. states. “I have long dreamed about taking the next big step in private space flight,” Allen said in a statement. “We are at the dawn of radical change in the space-launch industry.”
