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35°02′53.6064″N 118°08′31.9524″W / 35.048224000°N 118.142209000°W
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 2011 as Stratolaunch Systems Corp. |
| Headquarters | Mojave Air and Space Port Mojave, California, U.S. |
Key people | Zachary Krevor (CEO) |
| Products | Flight test services |
Number of employees | 360 (December 2023)[1] |
| Parent | Cerberus Capital Management[2] |
| Website | stratolaunch |
Stratolaunch LLC is an American aerospace company providing high-speed flight test services. It was originally formed in 2011 to develop a new air-launched space transportation system, with its corporate headquarters located in Seattle.[3][4] The company and development project were officially announced in December 2011 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, who had previously collaborated on the creation of SpaceShipOne.[5] After 10 years of previous private investment, the company was acquired in 2019 by Cerberus Capital Management and has since been 100% privately funded and operated as a non-traditional defense contractor.
The project originally had three primary components: a carrier aircraft being built by Scaled Composites (model Stratolaunch, called "Roc"[6]), a multi-stage payload launch vehicle which was to have been launched at high altitude into space from under the carrier aircraft, plus a mating and integration system by Dynetics.[7] Ultimately, only the carrier aircraft was fully developed by the time of Paul Allen's death in late 2018.
The carrier aircraft first flew in April 2019, at the Mojave Air and Space Port, reaching 15,000 ft (4,600 m) and 190 mph (305 km/h) in a 2 hour 29 minute flight.[8][9]
Stratolaunch underwent a change of ownership and direction when Jean Floyd took lead as CEO in 2019, reacquiring staff and growing to 87 employees by the beginning of 2020. Dr. Zachary Krevor now serves in the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of Stratolaunch, LLC and has been the company head since March 2022. Prior to becoming the President and Chief Operating Officer at Stratolaunch LLC, Dr. Krevor was the Vice President of Engineering at Stratolaunch Systems Corporation.
- ^ @WJeanFloyd (December 10, 2019). "Stratolaunch grew from 13 to 87 employees over the past 2 months. 2020 will be a great year" (Tweet). Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Twitter.[unreliable source?]
- ^ "Buyer of Paul Allen's Stratolaunch space venture is secretive Trump ally". geekwire.com. December 11, 2019. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
- ^ "Stratolaunch". www.stratolaunch.com. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
- ^ "Paul Allen's Vulcan Aerospace is now Stratolaunch, with a redesigned website". GeekWire. April 1, 2017. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
- ^ "Revolutionary Air-Launched Commercial Rocket to Orbit Announced by Microsoft Billionaire Paul Allen - Universe Today". December 14, 2011. Archived from the original on March 12, 2015. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
- ^ Alan Boyle (June 16, 2022). "Stratolaunch ascends to new heights with successful test of world's biggest airplane". GeekWire.
- ^ "Welcome huntsvillenewswire.com - BlueHost.com". www.huntsvillenewswire.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
- ^ "Stratolaunch becomes world's largest aircraft to fly". Flightglobal. April 13, 2019. Archived from the original on April 14, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
- ^ "Maior avião do mundo decola na Califórnia". G1 (in Portuguese). April 13, 2019. Archived from the original on April 14, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2019.