Over the past 70 years, the process of deploying satellites has not changed much. Satellites are loaded into a rocket which is then blasted into space to release the satellites at the target altitude. SpinLaunch, a spaceflight technology development company based in California, is offering a radically different approach that has caught the interest of NASA.
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SpinLaunch’s futuristic A-33 Subortbital Mass Accelerator spins spacecraft at speeds up to 5,000 mph before vaulting them beyond our atmosphere. The infrastructure resembles that of a giant steel vacuum, measuring 300 feet in diameter. But how exactly does it work?
A package – in this case, a satellite – attaches to an arm and spins around a projectile to gain momentum. Then, the satellite is released into a tube and thrown into the atmosphere. The launch vehicle then splits open and falls back to Earth. Meanwhile, a small booster on the satellite fires to provide the final push needed to reach the target orbit.
“SpinLaunch is offering a unique suborbital flight and high-speed testing service, and the recent launch agreement with NASA marks a key inflection point as SpinLaunch shifts focus from technology development to commercial offerings,” said SpinLaunch CEO Jonathan Yaney. “What started as an innovative idea to make space more accessible has materialized into a technically mature and game-changing approach to launch.”
This could mark the start of a new, cheaper, more eco-friendly way to access space. SpinLaunch says the system could reduce fuel usage by four times and costs by ten times in comparison to rocket launches. SpinLaunch will complete initial test flights at its base in New Mexico in October 2022. The startup aims to unveil its system to customers in 2024.
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Most recently, SpinLaunch signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA to develop and fly a NASA payload using its suborbital launch system in late 2022. NASA will then review launch data to determine whether SpinLaunch can provide them with commercial launch services in the future.
For more information on SpinLaunch, check out their website. As always, be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
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