---
title: "Paul Allen Launches ‘Vulcan Aerospace’ to Boost Private Space Travel"
description: "Billionaire Paul Allen has formed a new company to help make spaceflight more affordable and efficient."
date: "2015-04-17"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Peter Davidson"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/pete"
url: "https://futurism.com/paul-allen-launches-vulcan-aerospace-to-boost-private-space-travel"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# Paul Allen Launches ‘Vulcan Aerospace’ to Boost Private Space Travel

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

- Vulcan Aerospace is the company within Vulcan that plans and executes projects to shift how the world conceptualizes space travel through cost reduction and on‐demand access.
- Vulcan Aerospace has its heritage in SpaceShipOne and oversees theStratolaunch Systems project. SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for becoming the first privately funded manned vehicle to reach space twice in the span of two weeks.
- Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, teamed up with Rutan again in 2011 to form Stratolaunch Systems, a company that aims to launch satellites from the belly of a huge carrier aircraft with a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters).