Decommissioned Military Jets to Serve as Satellite Launchers
October 26th, 2010Via: Space.com:
Jets under consideration for the NanoLauncher game plan include the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the McDonnell Douglas F-15D Eagle, among others. These fighters will take the payload – slung underneath the fuselage on a rocket – several miles up and then fire the rocket to send the stowed satellites to their intended destination above the Earth.
NanoLauncher’s suborbital services will be rendered under the brand name NanoLauncher Blue (so named for “blue skies”) and orbital insertions will fall under NanoLauncher Black, named for the “black” of space.
For the latter service, NanoLauncher has advertised sending a maximum of 44 pounds (20 kg) into a high, circular 155-mile (250-km) orbit, although pricing is still being worked out.
Per its existing technology philosophy, NanoLauncher will make use of the standard deployment system developed at Cal Poly and Stanford University known as the poly picosatellite orbital deployer, or P-POD. This spring-loaded instrument can deposit three standard-size CubeSats into space, but is modifiable for various size and shape payloads.
NanoLauncher Blue is expected to begin full-scale operations in the 2014 time range and Black sometime in 2015.
