Massive space plane: A team of space innovators have joined forces to build the largest aircraft in history as a way to blast crew and cargo into space. - chicagotribune.com

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Massive space plane: A team of space innovators have joined forces to build the largest aircraft in history as a way to blast crew and cargo into space. - chicagotribune.com: "The group aims to manufacture a massive aircraft -- about twice the size of a 747 with a wingspan of 385 feet -- that would carry a missile-like capsule into the atmosphere. Once high enough, the plane would drop the missile, which then would blast itself into orbit with whatever cargo or crew it would be carrying."

With its unveiling, the Stratolaunch spacecraft becomes the latest competitor in the fledgling commercial space business that has emerged in the dusk of the shuttle era.

After the final shuttle flight this summer, NASA set on a course to use commercial carriers to ferry crew and cargo to the International Space Station so the agency can concentrate on building a new spacecraft that one day could carry astronauts back to the moon or to nearby asteroids.

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