Stratolaunch will use Pegasus XL rockets from Northrop Grumman with the ability to launch as many as three Pegasus XL rockets on a single flight.
Those two Pegasus rockets at Vandenberg were being built for Stratolaunch, the venture backed by the late Paul Allen that planned to launch Pegasus rockets from its giant aircraft.
The Falcon 9 contract for IXPE was valued at $50.2 million, compared with the $56,400,000 value of the 2014 contract NASA awarded for the ICON launch on a Pegasus XL.
NASA had scheduled the 2019-10-10 Pegasus launch for 9:30 p.m. Eastern but a communications glitch shortly before the planned release caused a half-hour delay.
NASA awarded a contract in July to SpaceX for a Falcon 9 launch of the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission despite IXPE being baselined to launch on the Pegasus XL.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 contract for the IXPE launch was valued at $50.8 million, which was less than the $56,400,000 cost for the Pegasus launch of ICON.
NASA’s most recent Pegasus XL contract, awarded in November 2014 for the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission, had a total cost of $56,400,000.
The Pegasus XL last launched in December 2016 and has flown only three times in the last decade.
Court documents refer to a 1998 NASA contract awarded to Orbital Sciences Corp. for Pegasus and Taurus launches.
Stratolaunch currently plans to launch Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL from the aircraft.
Pegasus launched three times in the last decade, with its most recent launch in 2016.
Stratolaunch ended work on its own family of launch vehicles on 2019-01-18 and decided to use its aircraft for launching Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rockets.
Stratolaunch plans to initially use the airplane for launches of Pegasus XL rockets provided by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.
The Pegasus XL launch vehicle experienced issues with its "fin rudder" that delayed a launch attempt on 2018-11-07, and an investigation into the vehicle problems is ongoing.
Prior to Falcon 9 receiving Category 3 certification, United Launch Alliance was the only provider offering Category 3 vehicles for NASA missions other than Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL.
Shea Ferring has participated in over 50 space missions using various launch vehicles, including Minotaur, Atlas V, Delta IV, Pegasus, and Falcon 9.
Northrop Grumman has worked in recent years to reduce Pegasus vehicle costs by 20 to 30 percent.
NASA’s 2014 contract for Pegasus to launch the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft was valued at $56.3 million, including payload processing and other services.
Stratolaunch reached an agreement with Orbital ATK in 2016 to use the Pegasus rocket on its carrier aircraft with the ability to launch as many as three Pegasus rockets on a single flight.