A history, as it approaches first air under the gear. As I noted in an email to the person who sent me the link:

“Stratolaunch has never made any sense to me as a business. Gary [Hudson]’s theory is that it’s the Glomar Explorer of space: a civilian cover for a black operation (in this case, perhaps as an X-37 launcher capable of single-orbit rendezvous). But it seems nutty to me to make your business dependent on a single carrier aircraft. Orbital got away with it with the Tri-Star but at least there they could have gone to the boneyard for another one if they’d lost it. Look how much time it’s taken to even do taxi tests with a single vehicle. And they only this week announced (again) their plans for the orbital launcher, now not to fly until 2022, over a decade after that press conference.”

I also think that Allen placed entirely too much faith in Burt, who is an aviation genius, but not necessarily a space guy.

He’s whining about SpaceX’s prices. Maybe he should get a trampoline.

And this is amusing:

Due to its geography, Russia is largely unable to make Falcon-style reusable boosters that would make vertical powered descent to a movable platform at sea, and so it has to follow an alternate path sticking to horizontal landings or relying on parachutes, he said.

Yes, because they couldn’t possibly land vertically down range, where they currently dump their expended first stages.