Pegasus Family rocket variant.
Performance data not available.
Stratolaunch plans to use the Pegasus XL rocket from Northrop Grumman for some missions.
Stratolaunch currently plans to launch Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus XL from the aircraft.
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.
NASA is working to extend the operational life of the Swift satellite ahead of a future reboost mission.
In October 2016 Stratolaunch partnered with Orbital ATK to use the existing Pegasus XL rocket on its aircraft.
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 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 awarded a contract to SpaceX in July 2019 for the IXPE launch on Falcon 9, replacing the originally planned Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL.
A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket launched the U.S. Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) mission on 2021-06-13 at 1:11 a.m. Pacific from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
Northrop Grumman successfully launched the Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) payload into orbit for the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center using the company’s Pegasus XL rocket.
The Space Force conducted the Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) mission in June 2021 using Northrop Grumman’s air-launched Pegasus XL rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, with Northrop Grumman given 21 days’ notice to prepare for launch.