 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2019) |
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace and defense |
| Founded | 2000-2003 [citation needed] |
| Headquarters | Kirkland, Washington, United States |
Key people | Gary C Hudson (Founder, CEO), Debra Facktor Lepore (President), Livingston Holder (Chief Program Executive), Curtis Gifford (Chief Operating Officer), Ralph Ewig (Chief Engineer) [citation needed] |
| Products | Orbital rocket launch; Aerospace hardware |
| Website | www.airlaunchllc.com |
AirLaunch was an aerospace design and development company headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.[when?] They had hoped to provide launch services for launching payloads into orbits around the Earth. This was to be realized through a method called air launch where a rocket is carried to high altitude by an aircraft and then released for launch. The rocket engine is then ignited to launch the rocket (with its payload) into a low Earth orbit (LEO).[1]
The principal advantage of a rocket being launched by a high flying airplane is that it need not fly through the low, dense atmosphere, the drag of which requires a considerable amount of extra work and thus mass of propellant. Another advantage is to precisely launch a payload into any orbital inclination at any time, and from a much wider variety of geographic launch locations.
- ^ Facktor Lepore, Debra; Padavano, Joseph (2007). "Progress Toward First Flight of the QuickReach™ Small Launch Vehicle". 21st Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites. Retrieved February 3, 2023.