16 votes

Centrifugal launch accelerator SpinLaunch completes first test flight

2 comments

  1. mat
    Link
    "The company is developing a launch system that uses kinetic energy as its primary method to get off the ground – with a vacuum-sealed centrifuge spinning the rocket at several times the speed of...

    "The company is developing a launch system that uses kinetic energy as its primary method to get off the ground – with a vacuum-sealed centrifuge spinning the rocket at several times the speed of sound before releasing."

    I like to think this was the product of a couple of engineers getting drunk one night and laughing about how crazy an idea it was, downing the rest of the bottle then waking up to find themselves surrounded by napkins covered in maths proving it's just about possible. If this firm can make it work it's a game changer for getting smaller payloads into orbit. Maybe not the squishy biological sort though..

    Scott Manley has a video on the project which goes into way more detail

    10 votes
  2. Omnicrola
    Link
    I already like this CEO better than some other spacefaring CEOs that I won't bother to name.

    SpinLaunch has largely stayed quiet until now, which Yaney explained was due to the ambitions of the company.

    “I find that the more audacious and crazy the project is, the better off you are just working on it – rather than being out there talking about it,” Yaney said. “We had to prove to ourselves that we could actually pull this off.”

    I already like this CEO better than some other spacefaring CEOs that I won't bother to name.

    10 votes