Stargazer (aircraft)
aircraft used used as a launch platform for the Pegasus rocket
Stargazer is a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar built in 1974 and modified in 1994 by Orbital Sciences (now part of Northrop Grumman) to serve as the mother ship for the Pegasus, an air-launched orbital rocket. As of June 2021, it has conducted 39 Pegasus launches carrying nearly 100 satellites. It is the only airworthy L-1011 remaining in service as of 2026 because its FAA-approved launch license was valid until March 9, 2026. It received "Emergency Special Permit Authorization" on March 20, 2026 for "immediate national security purposes" - to enable Swift boost mission launch.
Stargazer supported the final Pegasus launch in 2026, launching the LINK spacecraft to boost the orbit of NASA's Swift spacecraft. Stargazer also continues to fly regular missions for undisclosed customers, including missile and flight-test work.
History
The aircraft is an L-1011-100, the second production variant of the TriStar, which incorporated a new center fuel tank and higher gross weights that increased its range over the initial L-1011-1. It carries Lockheed construction number 1067. The airframe first entered service with Air Canada in March 1974 as C-FTNJ, and was briefly leased to Air Lanka for a few weeks in February 1982, during which it was registered as 4R-TNJ. Air Canada placed the aircraft into storage at Marana in November 1990.
Orbital Sciences purchased the airframe in May 1992 and contracted Marshall Aerospace in the United Kingdom to modify it as the carrier aircraft for the Pegasus air-launched orbital vehicle.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stargazer (aircraft)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.