Virgin Galactic, a space company, announced that it plans to use a Boeing 747-400 to assist in launching rockets. The plane will use a well-known structure below the left wing and before the engines to carry the load, for this they are preparing reinforcements in the structure that will this extra weight, in addition to, of course, another flight plan to compensate for the slight imbalance (the which is possible through the difference in fuel between the wings).
The aircraft, also nicknamed “Cosmic Girl”, is adapted from a commercial aircraft of the Virgin group, which also derived the curious nickname. The Boeing 747 will carry Virgin's launcher, LauncherOne, it has the capacity to place a satellite of up to 200kg in a Sun-synchronous orbit or up to 400kg in other types of orbit, such as Polar for example. The fuel used by the rocket aims to reduce weight, it basically uses LOX / RP-1 (Liquid Oxygen and Kerosene), with a propulsion of 73,5 thousand lbf.
The procedure for launching the rocket is very simple, the aircraft will climb to 35 feet, with the 747 stabilized, the load will be released and it will wait a few seconds to start the liquid propellant engines, the first stage will last 3 minutes on and soon after it will be replaced by the second stage, with a much lower thrust power (5 lbf), the second stage will alternate between turning on and off for 6 minutes. At the end of that sequence, LauncherOne will deploy the onboard satellite into its orbit.
Initial inspections and trials of the 747 “Cosmic Girl” have now been completed, and before the wing modification begins, a maintenance check will be performed by VT San Antonio Aerospace. The modification is based on the transport of a 5th (fifth) engine by the 747, with a total weight of 24 tons, a procedure already widely known in the aeronautical industry. The aircraft is capable of carrying out several missions of this type throughout its life, in addition to being able to take off from commercial airports. Its approximate cost per launch is 10 million dollars, less than what is charged using the conventional launch method.
Virgin Galactic is already well known in the aeronautical and aerospace world, recently heard the launch of the tourism spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, including a fatal accident in October 2014. Despite everything, the company's CEO is optimistic about the project, “ Air launch allows us to provide fast, agile service to our satellite customers on a schedule defined by their business and operational needs, rather than the limitations of launch ranges at a national level,” said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson also gave his testimony on the launcher reuse project. “The Boeing 747 has a very special place in my heart as it started service on my first airline, Virgin Atlantic. I never imagined that today one of our 747s would have a second chance to help free access to space. I am absolutely delighted that Cosmic Girl can stay in the Virgin family! – and really live up to her name.”
Note from Aeroflap – Unlike other projects such as SpaceX and Orbital ATK, Virgin Galactic's has an extremely easy function to recover and, above all, efficient in of reducing the gravitational force, in this configuration the rocket will be launched as a giant missile, breaking all the problem that a launcher of great weight demonstrates to have, that is to overcome the gravity of the earth. With this procedure done, it was even possible to eliminate a stage of its configuration and reduce the engine power in design (and logically reducing the amount of fuel required).
