Paul Allen has been busy, that's a big ass plane!

[BP]

http://www.stratolaunch.com/

His space company released a new video a couple of days ago. The plane they are building has a 385 foot wingspan, a gross weight of 1.2 million pounds and is powered by 6 PW4056 engines giving it 336,000 lbf of thrust.

Basically it's a massive aircraft that'll carry a spacecraft up to 30k feet, giving it a big head start on it's launch. Which will increase the payload and save on fuel.

On another note SpaceX was busy last night testing something. Their FAA permit for testing in Texas expires this weekend so if you ever wanted to see a rocket hover and land over Central Texas it'd be your best chance for a while.

[Labora]

That is cool.

[SMKR]

On another note SpaceX was busy last night testing something. Their FAA permit for testing in Texas expires this weekend so if you ever wanted to see a rocket hover and land over Central Texas it'd be your best chance for a while.

Explain this in a little more detail please. Each night Space X usually does 1 burn for 30-45 seconds. Last night they did a burn for 4 minutes. I live 12 miles from their test facility and we had a picture fall off the living room wall from it. So from what you are saying I gather there is a good opportunity to see a mobile rocket this weekend out there? If so Ill drive that way.....

[BP]

Explain this in a little more detail please. Each night Space X usually does 1 burn for 30-45 seconds. Last night they did a burn for 4 minutes. I live 12 miles from their test facility and we had a picture fall off the living room wall from it. So from what you are saying I gather there is a good opportunity to see a mobile rocket this weekend out there? If so Ill drive that way.....

They don't really publicize any of the tests for obvious reasons. You've probably seen the facility, it's massive and in the middle of nowhere. They don't want a ton of spectators around.

What I can say is that if you drive by Doc's in McGregor and the parking lot isn't full of cars there is a fair chance the guys at SpaceX are planning on testing something that night.

At 12 miles away you might be able to see the rocket hovering. They launch up to 800 feet.

[Sgt Beavis]

On another note SpaceX was busy last night testing something. Their FAA permit for testing in Texas expires this weekend so if you ever wanted to see a rocket hover and land over Central Texas it'd be your best chance for a while.

Yea, I remember reading about this. It falls in line with their planning as well. They are going to start doing test flights in New Mexico. The FAA will let them fly much higher there. They can pretty much go to space as long as they don't get to orbital speeds.

I think they will be testing 2nd stage recovery before long. They are within a hair of getting the 1st stage landing problem solved. Its too bad the next launch doesn't have landing legs.

[BP]

That was a good blast! Lasted about a minute and rattled all the windows at my office in Waco.