Secretive Startup SpinLaunch Gets 1st Launch Contract for US Military

[Judi Lynn]

By Tariq Malik 3 hours ago

It could launch in 2020!



(Image: © SpinLaunch)

The secretive startup SpinLaunch, which aims to fling satellites into space without a traditional launch pad, has just secured its first launch contract.

In a statement today (June 19), SpinLaunch announced that it has received a "launch prototype contract" from the U.S. Department of Defense under a deal arranged by the Defense Innovation Unit. The Long Beach, California-based company aims to launch its first test flights in early 2020 from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

SpinLaunch is developing a "kinetic energy-based launch system" that accelerates a small payload-carrying booster to hypersonic speeds with a spinning system on the ground. A chemical rocket would kick in once the payload has been launched from the ground system.

An illustration released with the announcement depicted a SpinLaunch booster attached to the arm of what appeared to be a centrifuge.

More:
https://www.space.com/spinlaunch-first-launch-contract.html

[hunter]

1. Hard to say what's happening here.

I think they are simply testing models on a centrifuge.

The scheme seems to be a 3,000 mph catapult powered by giant flywheels, a catapult fast enough to get a hybrid scramjet-rocket engine lit.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/22/spinlaunch-2/

They'll be launching the thing from the ground so expect a hell of a bang, if not from the sonic boom then from exploding equipment or fuses.

What next, a Jules Verne style moon gun?

wikipedia

Too bad Gerald Bull was assasinated. He might have been an amoral hero like Wernher Von Braun.

I'd like to live in a world without "secretive" projects and hired guns.