Why Don't We Launch More Rockets From Airplanes?

NASA recently launched a spacecraft horizontally from an airplane, rather than vertically from the ground. Should we launch more like this?


Read More:

NASA Rocket Deploys 'Satellite Constellation' After Unique Air-Launch
"First, an aircraft called "Stargazer" took off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday morning. Then, when it reached 39,000 feet above sea level and about 110 nautical miles off Daytona Beach, it air-launched the Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket, which was carrying the satellites."

NASA Armstrong Fact Sheet: X-15 Hypersonic Research Program
"In the joint X-15 hypersonic research program that NASA conducted with the Air Force, the Navy, and North American Aviation, Inc., the aircraft flew over a period of nearly 10 years and set the world's unofficial speed and altitude records of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7) and 354,200 feet in a program to investigate all aspects of piloted hypersonic flight."

Pegasus
"On April 5, 1990, Orbital ATK began a new era in commercial space flight when our Pegasus rocket was launched from beneath a NASA B-52 aircraft in a mission that originated from Dryden Flight Research Center in California. In the decades since its maiden flight, Pegasus has become the world's standard for affordable and reliable small launch vehicles. It has conducted 42 missions, launching 86 satellites."

____________________

DNews is dedicated to satisfying your curiosity and to bringing you mind-bending stories & perspectives you won't find anywhere else! New videos daily.









Written by: Trace Dominguez

[karsnoordhuis]

thank you for putting the numbers in metric on screen! a lot of american youtubers dont do this while having a lot of international viewers, really annoying.

[Master_Therion]

I know why, because the TSA is stupid. If you try to bring a rocket aboard an airplane you get arrested, put on a no-fly list and an agent from Homeland Security named Jim will follow you around whenever you leave the house. Okay, it was an RPG, but still, it's not fair :(

[awesomo]

Can someone tell me why football fields are a use of measurement

[uokih]

I feel like you missed the main advantage of this form of space entry. Airplanes can use the oxygen from the atmosphere to fuel their combustion engines greatly reducing the amount of mass of fuel needed to take up reducing the overall mass total of a rocket whilst rockets need to carry a very heavy liquid oxidizer in conjunction with their fuel, increasing overall fuel mass about 300% (assuming kerosene fuel and 4:1 stoichiometry .)

[idtyu]

the other disadvantage of using plane is that you have to turn on airplane mode

[SeanLumly]

Launching from a plane may not buy you much efficiency, but it has some nice properties that could make it attractive given the application. For example, since it is always sunny above the clouds, more reliable launch schedules may be achievable with plane launches versus pad launches.

It's also worth noting that many plane/rocket launches (though not all) use modified planes, or planes/engines intended for endurance and not necessarily those built with the purposes of launching rockets. With different designs, efficiency can be tweaked. For example, the short flights may also allow for electric propulsion and the ability to safely (and quietly) launch from coastal metropolitan areas (eg. near factories).

[DtWolfwood]

I like Scott Manley's explanation better. the vertical rocket's fuel is used mostly for achieving HORIZONTAL speed. the difference in 0 km or 12km to a rocket is minuscule. Not to mention the speed of the plane + the rocket versus 0kph + rocket is also tiny compared to the velocities needed to achieve orbit. That why they mostly use vertical take off rockets. Its cheaper and in the scheme of things more efficient.

[DeHeld]

When I'm talking rocket, I think R7 first of all. Damn, why do US based youtube channels always ignore the Soviet/Russian space program?

[RyeOnHam]

SO MANY inaccuracies in this video:
1) Stratolaunch is a thing. The plane is nearing completion in Mojave and is FULLY FUNDED by Paul Allen, among other investors.
2) Stratolaunch is launching the Pegasus 2 rocket, not the Falcon 9.
3) The picture you showed of SpaceShip 1 and the White Knight is NOT the SpaceShip 2 and White Knight 2, both of which are in testing now with flights planned in 6 months.
4) White Knight 2 will also launch "Launcher One", a small satellite launcher

I don't even want to get into all of the omissions on this one, but at least you included the X-15 in there and got many of those facts right. Why didn't you let Amy Sheitel do this episode?

[nielsdaemen]

2:30 That is escape velocity( needed to escape from earths gravity completely) But most sattelites are put into low earth Orbit and just need to reach 7.8 Km/sec.

[robinghoshal]

the actual reason is that no one wants to be reminded of Superman Returns.

[joshroc]

The introduction was so funny." if we can launch rockets like this, and why not like this!?!"

[jadencm]

Why don't we launch more planes from rockets

[BryceChanes]

0:35 is Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle. New Glenn is still in development, but will be a much larger, orbit-capable rocket.

[robinj.]

With a vertical launch, the vehicle exceeds Mach 1 at a quite low altitude. Bumping past Mach One down low puts a tremendous stress on the entire vehicle. Thus it requires quite "Beefy" construction.
With Aero-launching, since your "Rocket" is up above that dense layer, way up in the Stratosphere, you exceed Mach One in air much less dense!
Putting less stress on the vehicle AND thus you need not build such a Heavy rocket!
I believe that, once a few bugs are worked out; we will be seeing a LOT MORE of them in the very near future.

[arnipalmer]

These are the videos that me going for my engineering degree. Thank you guys so much!

[scottgauer]

Very wrong answer. Gravity losses and air losses only make up about 10-20% of the delta V to get to orbit. An airplane launch can only negate these, since its 500 mph speed is very small compared to the 17500 mph orbital speed. And it's not helping that much with gravity losses either, since it only launches about 10% of the way into space. Simply put, it's way cheaper to launch vertically.

[scotthix]

The reason we do vertical launch is because of the space race. We had ICBM that worked good. We just had to build a capsule and stick on the front of it. Thus a space program.

[oatlord]

Why was the NASA logo blurred out in that photo of the track?

[sanjuansteve]

I was thinking the opposite... Why don't we launch commercial airlines by lighter than air balloons that take them up to cruising altitude or above that release and fly themselves back down to the airport for solar powered recharge and reuse?!