EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif -- The final airdrop in the Falcon Small Launch Vehicle program took place, when an operational C‑17 dropped a 65-foot, 72,000-pound booster rocket mock-up at 32,000 feet, The drop was performed by the 418th Flight Test Squadron, Air Launch and the Boeing Corporation.
The Falcon Small Launch Vehicle program was a joint effort between the Air Force, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Airlaunch LLC and other private firms to explore a less expensive and more flexible method of launching a 1,000-pound payload, specifically a satellite, into low earth orbit, but it also helped expand the capabilities of the C-17 Globemaster III.
The final test was the airdrop of a 65-foot, 72,000-pound booster rocket mockup at 32,000 feet, and was performed by a crew of professionals from the 418th Flight Test Squadron, AirLaunch and the Boeing Corporation on board an operational C-17 from McChord Air Force Base, Wash. The mockup, a test vehicle built by Airlaunch LLC for the Falcon Small Launch Vehicle program, is the longest and heaviest single object ever dropped from a C-17.