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Sir Richard Branson is reassigning one of his old Virgin Atlantic 747-400 jumbos to the service of space.

The jet will be the launch platform for the satellite rocket being developed by another of the entrepreneur's companies - Virgin Galactic.

The 747 will carry this booster to high altitude where it will be released to ignite its engine and go into orbit.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35002459

Which 747? VS' "Cosmic Girl", naturally.

Can you say "X-15"?

I've wondered why nobody employed a system like this before. It's all proven technology, it's lower risk, and getting it all put together should be a good bit cheaper than most of the new systems being developed. And we all know there are plenty of very useful and airworthy 747's lying around in the desert waiting to be chopped-up.

Queso wrote:Can you say "X-15"?

I've wondered why nobody employed a system like this before.

They do, with an L-1011 to boot... so it's more sexy.

What is the operating cost of a 747 per hour?

I understand that its around $25K per hour. Figure 2 hours or so on these types of flights(?) and that's a fairly significant cost for something reusable and supposedly cheap as the smaller Virgin Galactic ships.

Maybe they have a bigger ship in the works?