@ Mojave, CA
October 2018
Driving home from the Apple Valley Airshow took us past the Mojave Airport where I spied the unmistakable lines of the Stratolaunch, causing me to pull over immediately and get my first images of this unique airplane. The Stratolaunch is an aircraft being built by Scaled Composites to conduct air launches of rockets carrying orbital payloads. Originally planned to air launch the SpaceX Falcon 9 Air booster, the current baseline is to carry multiple Pegasus XL vehicles. Construction of the aircraft began in 2012, rollout was in May 2017 and taxi testing began in December 2017 with the goal of first launch in 2019. Once airworthy, the Stratolaunch would set new records for aircraft wingspan (385 ft) and length (238 ft). Nikon D500 w/Tamron 150-600mm.
