Stealth Startup SpinLaunch Raises $40 Million for Radical New Launch Strategy

space.com ^

[BenLurkin]

Silicon Valley startup SpinLaunch snagged $35 million in "Series A" funding from some big-name investors, including Airbus Ventures, GV (previously Google Ventures) and Kleiner Perkins, the company announced Thursday (June 14). Another group of investors had already chipped in $5 million.

The details of that approach remain mysterious; SpinLaunch has been in stealth mode since its 2015 founding. (The company's website requires a login.) But the basics involve accelerating "the launch vehicle to hypersonic speeds using ground-based electricity," SpinLaunch CEO Jonathan Yaney said in the same statement.

"Applying the initial performance boost from a terrestrial-based launch platform enables us to lower the cost by orders of magnitude and launch many times per day," he added.

Yaney declined to speak with Space.com for this story. But he did grant an interview to TechCrunch several months ago. During that discussion, he described SpinLaunch's concept as a "rotational acceleration method" that harnesses angular momentum (which makes sense, given the startup's name). Yaney also told TechCrunch that SpinLaunch is aiming for a per-launch price below $500,000, which would be much lower than a launch with the cheapest rockets.

[Ozark Tom]

Tad short of velocity to make orbital altitude even with a perigee kick engine.

[PAR35]

Sounds more like a giant centrifuge. “rotational acceleration method”

[Steve Van Doorn]

Railgun with the projectile a large spinning corkscrew. Likely using a much smaller rocket to maximize altitude.

Cannon launch systems didn't work out to well.

[Campion]

A rocket launch pulls 4-8 G's. This thing -- according to the article -- would pull 40-60 thousand G's. Most things would turn into mush under that acceleration. How heavy would a satellite have to be to be "G-hardened" enough to take 60,000 G's?

[rightwingcrazy]

Sounds like a weapon.