SpinLaunch has tested a "catapult" that spins objects and launches them into space

For more than half a century, mankind has been sending ships and people into space using rocket boosters. Startup SpinLaunch is about to offer an alternative method based on kinetic energy. We are talking about an installation that is capable of spinning an object up to a speed sufficient to enter orbit.

SpinLaunch has successfully tested a prototype of such a setup, the Suborbital Accelerator. This is a giant accelerator the size of an entire building. It is a disk-shaped vacuum chamber with a launch shaft, from which unwound objects fly out. According to the creators of the mechanism, the "shells" can reach speeds of up to 8047 km / h, which is many times higher than the speed of sound.

The electric drive used in the mechanism can cut fuel consumption by up to four times and launch costs by up to 10 times compared to traditional rocket launches. In the future, such a "catapult" will allow several payloads to be thrown into orbit every day.

Based on the Suborbital Accelerator, SpinLaunch will build a larger accelerator - the L100 Orbital Mass Accelerator. It will work on the same principle and will be able to launch satellites weighing up to 200 kg into orbit. The company claims that the most advanced capacitors, ICs and resistors are capable of withstanding the accompanying overload (about 10,000 g when spinning up in the launch chamber), so the electronics will not be damaged during such launch.

As part of the test, SpinLaunch launched a rocket that reached supersonic speeds and was successfully rebuilt for reuse after landing. Further test flights will take place throughout 2022 with different objects and different speeds. The first commercial launches may take place as early as the end of 2024.