On Jan 29, 12:50*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145650.html

If developed, it will be interesting to see if they use a existing
aircraft as the carrier or develop some sort of dedicated launch
aircraft for them.

A F-15 with a added rocket engine could reach a very impressive altitude
in a zoom climb.

I think that this violates the laws of physics.

Using an airplane as a launch platform for a space rocket is perfectly
sensible, and it also makes sense that since it is hard to design a
gigantic airplane, one would best be able to make use of existing
airplanes as launch platforms for small rockets and much smaller
payloads.

But the law of physics that's being violated is the one about the
diffraction of light. These microsatellites are being pitched as _spy_
satellites, not, say, research satellites for studying the Van Allen
belt or whatever. For that, you would want something the size of the
HST, although I suppose a 36-inch mirror might do; hardly "micro".

John Savard