Launches: SpinLaunch builds a slingshot to space!

Guests tour the SpinLaunch A-33 Suborbital Mass Accelerator at Spaceport America in New Mexico before a demonstration launch on September 27, 2022. This is the 10th demo for the company. Their launches demonstrated that hardware from potential customers can withstand the enormous pressure of the system. Image via SpinLaunch/ WeTransfer.

SpinLaunch has a slingshot to space

Late last month (September 2022), a plucky group of aerospace engineers and techs using an oversized centrifuge successfully threw a demo payload – including a NASA test package – into space. The payload went up from the Jornada del Muerto desert in the U.S. state of New Mexico. SpinLaunch says its goal is to provide affordable and rapid cargo launches. And to that end the team has constructed its enormous centrifuge inside a disk-shaped vacuum chamber that, the company says, will eventually be able to fling an unpowered vehicle up into Earth-orbit.

The launcher stands more than 50 meters (165 feet) high, slightly taller than the 46-meter (151-foot) Statue of Liberty. SpinLaunch’s A-33 Suborbital Mass Accelerator produces up to 10,000 gravities during a launch. So it’s not suitable for human passengers.

Basically, it’s the world’s biggest slingshot. And it’s located at Spaceport America, which is situated on 18,000 acres adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The company uses the machine to launch payloads at speeds up to 4,700 mph (7,500 kph). That’s not fast enough to get into Earth-orbit yet. For that, you need speeds of 17,500 mph (28,000 km/hr). But the company says it also plans an developing orbital version.

Check out this video!

A 10,000 G takeoff

The company marked a milestone with its 10th kinetic launch with a demonstration for four of its potential customers, showing that its satellites and test equipment can withstand the force of a launch leaving the ground at top speed.

The company announced its success on October 3:

The flight test, which occurred on September 27, 2022, demonstrated that SpinLaunch partners’ standard satellite components are inherently compatible with the company’s launch environment, and provided critical flight data, as all payloads were flown and recovered successfully.

This was the 10th successful test of the accelerator since October 2021.

Bottom line: A private company, Spinlaunch, is using a mass accelerator to throw payloads into space.

Via BusinessWire

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