The concept behind the system is pretty crazy: Essentially, SpinLaunch wants to use a large vacuum sealed chamber and a hypersonic tether to rotate the spacecraft fast enough (up to 5000 miles per hour) to escape the atmosphere and enter orbit. . This means there are no rockets, no rocket engines. This is a completely different way of thinking about space flight, more similar to a giant railgun rather than a traditional launch system.
According to SpinLaunch, such a system is now possible due to advances in small electronic devices and high-strength materials such as carbon fiber.
The prototype flight took place on October 22 at the U.S. Spaceport in New Mexico. In addition to using an accelerator to launch a test spacecraft at supersonic speeds, which is about one-third the size of the planned system (but still larger than the Statue of Liberty, SpinLaunch points out on its website), the startup also reclaims the spacecraft To reuse it for future tests.
According to CNBC reports, SpinLaunch was established in 2014 and its goal is to conduct approximately 30 suborbital test flights in the next six to eight months. The startup is supported by Airbus Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and GV.
The startup did not disclose the location of its first orbital launch, but its website states that it will be in “a coastal area of the United States.”