Towed Glider Air Launch System (TGALS)

Note: Please note that this is an “archived project” and is no longer updated. This article is meant for historical purposes only.

The towed glider is an element of the novel rocket-launching concept of the Towed Glider Air-Launch System, or TGALS. NASA Armstrong researchers are developing the project, which is funded as a part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development Program.

NASA flight-tested a prototype twin-fuselage towed glider in October 2014 that could lead to rockets being launched from pilotless aircraft at high altitudes – a technology application that could significantly reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of sending small satellites into space. The first flights of the one-third-scale twin fuselage towed glider took place from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.