Briefs

Just months after NASA ended its shuttle program, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is investing his own money in a new venture to launch satellites, people, and supplies into space. Instead of relying on ground-based rockets, Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems would transport cargo into the atmosphere on a mammoth airplane and then blast it into space. The plane’s wingspan will be more than 380 feet, and it will be powered by six engines culled from Boeing 747 jumbo jets. The first flight is planned within five years. The cost of funding construction of the new megaplane is expected to exceed the $25 million Allen sank into an earlier rocket venture, SpaceShipOne, in 2004.

The Defense Dept. is pressing one of its largest contractors in Afghanistan to return $756.9 million in overbilled transportation costs. The Pentagon and Supreme Foodservice reached an impasse in negotiations over rates. The Swiss company, which plans to appeal the refund request, has been paid at least $5.5 billion since 2005 to supply and transport food, water, and other goods. The Pentagon’s inspector general has singled out the Supreme contract as an example of oversight problems at the department.