AirLaunch LLC is an aerospace design and development company headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. They hope to provide launch services for launching payloads into orbits around the Earth. This is to be realized through a method called air launch where a rocket is carried within an aircraft and then dropped from altitude. The rocket engine is then ignited where the rocket (with its payload) enter into a low earth orbit. On June 14, 2006, the firm, in a DARPA sponsored test, dropped a 65,000 lb dummy payload from the back of a C-17, the largest single load ever dropped from an airplane.[1] Airlaunch is currently undergoing upper stage propulsion development for the QuickReach orbital launch vehicle. The QuickReach vehicle is part of the Air Force and DARPA Falcon Small Launch Vehicle Program.
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