Stratolaunch Systems

Stratolaunch LLC is a private American aerospace company providing high-speed flight test services. It was founded in 2011 to develop a new air-launched space transportation system. Its corporate headquarters are in Seattle. The company and development project were announced in December 2011 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, who had previously collaborated on SpaceShipOne. The company was acquired in 2019 by Cerberus Capital Management and has continued with private funding, operating as a non-traditional defense contractor. The project involves three components: a carrier aircraft being built by Scaled Composites (model Stratolaunch, called "Roc"), a multi-stage payload launch vehicle launched at high altitude into space from under the carrier, plus a mating and integration system by Dynetics.