In California, giant Stratolaunch jet flies for first time
I'm puzzled by what added benefit being 10km up in the air and going at 300-400kmph gives over regular rocket launches since speed and altitude are a very small fraction of what's required to orbit.The article says it will be less affected by weather windows but (1) would a normal  LEO commercial launch be so highly time bound to find this of value? (2) if weather was bad for a rocket launch on surface, would you fly a heavily laden giant plane into it?Leads me to wonder if the real customers of this is the military who do value very short turnaround launches.