http://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-jet-launch-satellites-2014-4
Boeing Is Building A Fighter Jet That Can Launch Military Satellites Into Space
And you thought space launches couldn't get any cooler: The next generation of small satellites may blast into orbit from the belly of a fighter jet.
The United States military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) gave Boeing a $30.6 million contract last month to develop a 24-foot (7.3-meter) launch vehicle that would attach to the bottom of an F-15E Strike Eagle.
The concept calls for the jet to drop this vehicle when it reaches an altitude of 40,000 feet (12,192 meters), at which point the craft's rocket engines would kick on, carrying onboard satellites into orbit............"With our design, the first and second stages are powered by the same engines, reducing weight and complexity."
DARPA also wants to reduce the cost of access to space for much bigger payloads.
The agency's Experimental Spaceplane project, or XS-1, aims to develop a vehicle capable of launching 3,000- to 5,000-lb (1,361 to 2,268 kg) payloads to orbit for less than $5 million per flight.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-jet-launch-satellites-2014-4#ixzz2zmpRVHSk