Inside the Stratolaunch hangar in Mojave, California. (credit: Vulcan Aerospace)

When it comes to dotcom billionaires and their rocket plans, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos get all the attention. Musk is already launching rockets for NASA, and Bezos is creating the engine for America’s largest rocket firm, United Launch Alliance. Paul Allen, by comparison, receives barely a mention.

The co-founder of Microsoft, nevertheless, teamed up with American aerospace engineer Burt Rutan in 2011 to create Stratolaunch Systems. With a mixture of standard aviation and modern rocketry, the business planned to launch satellites into space from a enormous carrier aircraft with a wingspan of 117 meters, far bigger than a 747 aircraft. Earlier this year Allen founded Vulcan Aerospace to oversee those improvement efforts.

Now, nonetheless, the launcher concept may be struggling. The Wall Street Journal reported the venture is on hold, each due to the fact of rocket supply issues as properly as a launch market moving to smaller sized satellites and smaller sized, much less high-priced rockets.