SpinLaunch is a startup that has just introduced the world’s first kinetic space launch system. the company just completed its first trial flight. They have been working since 2015 on the project of sending space missions out in the space without sending out hazardous emissions.
The company will develop a giant accelerator powered by an electric drive that would reduce fuel use by four times and the costs by 10 times compared to conventional rocket launches, while also firing multiple payloads into orbit each day.
All of this will be achieved by Suborbital Accelerator. It comprises an upright disc-shaped, vacuum chamber that has a little more height than the Statue of Liberty and it uses a carbon fiber tether to whip a projectile around to speeds of up to 5,000 mph (8,047 km/h). It then releases it through a launch tube and upward through the atmosphere.
A larger system, the L100 Orbital Mass Accelerator, would operate on a similar principle, and is being developed to launch satellites with the maximum weights of 440 lb. (200 kg).
This idea has been discussed earlier as well. Like the US and Canada worked on a Project Harp in the 1960s that aspired to fire projectiles into orbit with a massive space gun. This design also formed the basis for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s Project Babylon. However, when the lead engineer was assassinated, the project was dismissed.
On October 22, the company completed its first test flight at its Spaceport America base in New Mexico. More trial flights will be getting done in 2022 with changes in variables. The first customer launch will be in 2024.
