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From: mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Pegasus
Message-ID: <1991Apr2.065245.15521@amd.com>
Date: 1 Apr 91 15:48:50 GMT
References: <1991Mar30.020340.27985@amd.com>
Sender: military@amd.com
Organization: NASA/MSFC
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From: mcdowell@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov (Jonathan McDowell)

kinney@wku.edu (Mark Kinney) writes:
>	I look on the articles about the missile launches out of cargo planes
>with interest. Could they possibly have been "feasability tests" for the
>Pegasus rocket project? [....] I
>know it couldn't launch, say, a KH-13 or anything, but some of the earlier
>Keyholes could be put up I'm sure.

Wrong. Even the earliest KH satellites of 1959 were too heavy to fly on
Pegasus, it can only launch very small satellites. There is interest
in developing a small hi-tech observation satellite that could be
Pegasus launched, but there isn't one yet. Pegasus is launched under the
wing of the B-52 and derives more from the X-15 and lifting body experience
than from missile drops from cargo planes.

Jonathan McDowell
(any reply by email please, I dont normally read this group)