Almost any airport could be a spaceport if a NASA team gets its way - by AndyTomaswick
TGALS, developed at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, is indeed both – a business class jet that pulls a specially designed glider behind it for take-off and takes that glider up to about 12 km altitude. At that point, the glider disconnects from the plane. The jet then returns to the airfield.
After separating from the airplane, the glider is no longer a glider, as it uses a small rocket engine to angle itself upward. Upon reaching a reasonable angle, a full-blown chemical rocket is released from the glider’s underbelly and starts its own orbital burn. The glider, which is unmanned, is then guided back to the airfield it left from, ready for another go. The rocket itself isn’t reusable, but it is a relatively small cost of the overall system.
Another attraction of that system is that it could lower the cost of getting to orbit for relatively small payloads by around 40% since both the glider and business jet are reusable. Additionally, there aren’t any potentially explodable rockets anywhere near an aircraft with a human in it. In effect, if the glider or its rocket payload explodes in midair, the business jet towing it along, which has actual pilots in it, will most likely be fine.
They might even be able to look “internally” – or at least to another part of the federal government. The Department of Defense has a long-running hypersonic test program, which TGALS might be able to integrate well with. Instead of tracking hypersonic missiles using a system of Global Hawk aircraft, the TGALS system could provide gliders that could deliver the same sort of telemetry data needed to conduct hypersonic research effectively.
Overall there’s lots of promise for this technology, but it will face plenty of competition. A similar system has already put some astronauts up to suborbital altitudes with Spaceship Two. The looming launch of Starship and other heavy launch vehicles could also put a dent in the commercial prospects of a somewhat cheaper launch system. But none of those new heavy lifters will be able to take off from a regular airport.
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