NASA will soon be launching its satellites into low Earth orbit thanks to a recent partnership with a startup working on a giant SpinLaunch space cannon in the form of a centrifuge. SpinLaunch recently completed ten successful tests of its suborbital kinetic accelerator. During the demonstration, the cannon lifted a payload into the sky for NASA, Airbus, Cornell University and others.
During tests at the end of September from the Spaceport America base located in the Hornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico, the startup’s space cannon launched a capsule with a payload, including a camera, into the sky at an altitude of 7,600 meters. This demonstration helped illustrate how “alternative” launch technology could send satellites and other objects into low Earth orbit or beyond in a cheap and environmentally friendly way.
Tests also show that the SpinLaunch payload can withstand huge overload forces just before launch — up to 10000G. Of course, no living creature is able to withstand such loads, so such launches will be used exclusively for artificial satellites. The demonstration flight proved that the things in the capsule remained intact at the time of launch, SpinLaunch said in a press release.
Although the company’s technology is obviously still not ready to launch heavier payloads or satellites, SpinLaunch has done a lot to improve its technology since its founding in 2014, and a year after its construction, the centrifuge was able to send the first payload into the sky.
Earlier we reported on how Vast Space will create a station with artificial gravity.
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