Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has spent the last six years working on a giant aircraft capable of launching rockets to space. Today, his company Stratolaunch Systems literally rolled that plane out of its hangar in the Mojave Desert for the first time ever.

In this September 16, 2017 photo, a music fan poses for the photo against an angel wings' mural at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, appear in the sky over the Bamburgh lighthouse at Stag Rock in Northumberland, England on September 28, 2016. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire via ZUMA Press)

A woman prays at the edge of a river during a protest against the building of a pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S. November 2, 2016. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters)

Behind the scenes at Rock it Out, a circus show fusing live music and death-defying stunts in West Thurrock, Essex on April 10, 2025. They will attempt a British first: a double somersault on a rotating wheel. (Photo by Jeff Moore)

Spanish model Lorena Duran attends the 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Launch Party at Hard Rock Hotel New York on May 15, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by TheStewartofNY/Getty Images)

Families and children play at Brimham Rocks during their half term break in North Yorkshire, UK on February 18, 2025. (Photo by James Glossop/The Times & Sunday Times)