[rightwingcrazy]

“My first thought is angular momentum equals high G forces in the lateral.”

That was my first thought, too, but if you want to get into orbit, it’s hard to avoid high G forces.

[PhiloBedo]

True, but with the conventional method, the g forces are along the axis. I’m thinking of the engineering required to handle high g forces pushing out to the side. Think of it like a stick being able to take a lot of pressure end to end, but not so much on the side.

[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?