Paul Allen Enters Commercial Space Race

Fusing together a massive airplane and a manned rocket is the latest innovation in opening up Earth's orbit.

Paul Allen, the guy who founded Microsoft along with some other guy, has unveiled his plans to join the increasingly competitive commercial space industry with a massive, airplane/rocket hybrid that he hopes will carry cargo, astronauts, tourists, and more to "any orbit, any time." The company, named Stratolaunch Systems, hopes to have the first iteration of the plane in the sky by 2016. The plane would be the largest aircraft ever built, with a wingspan of 385 metres, six 747 Jumbo Jet engines, and a manned rocket that will detach and blast off into space once the plane reaches an altitude of about 30,000 feet. The plane is essentially a mixture of the two other major commercial space schemes: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne, which is strapped to a plane called White Knight, and SpaceX's Falcon, a rocket that is meant to carry payloads into space. As such, Allen's company is more of a "tweaker" than an inventor, but if you subscribe to Malcolm Gladwell's view on innovation, Allen's creation could be, in the words of Mashable's Chris Taylor, "one giant leap for mankind:"

The system seems powerful, light and easily scaled — a magical recipe for entrepreneurship. It also doesn’t hurt to have the resources of one of the world’s wealthiest men. Slowly but surely, it’s companies like this that will move the needle on the cost of getting ordinary people, everyday things, and all-important infrastructure to space.

As it stands, the only way you're getting to space right now is aboard a Russian space craft for about $60 million a ride. Between Allen, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX, though, getting to space could soon be open to (the marginally less well-heeled) masses.