Orbital Stargazer

Located at the Mojave Air and Space Port, this is the Orbital Stargazer, "an L-1011 commercial transport aircraft modified to serve as the launch platform for Orbital’s air-launched Pegasus rocket as well as a platform for airborne research projects. The L-1011 has been used to successfully launch 32 Pegasus rockets as well as the captive carry flights of the X-34 reusable launch vehicle demonstrator. The aircraft has also been used to conduct various airborne research projects including the NASA Adaptive Performance Optimization (APO) project."

July 28, 2012 4:00 AM PDT

Photo by: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

| Caption by: Daniel Terdiman

 

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