SpaceX has brought down the price of delivering payloads to low earth orbit to under $3000 per kg, but even a small satellite still costs over $1 million. A company called SpinLaunch proposes to lower costs further by flinging the things into space on a giant centrifuge. At a certain altitude, a small booster engine would ignite, accelerating the payload to the 7 miles per second needed to achieve orbit. We don’t know how practical or realistic this proposal is, but this video is worth three minutes of your time.
Best Of The Web: Hurling Satellites Into Space
Key Takeaways:
- SpaceX has reduced the cost of launching payloads to low Earth orbit to under $3000/kg.
- Even with reduced costs, small satellites still cost over $1 million to launch.
- SpinLaunch aims to further reduce launch costs using a giant centrifuge to fling payloads into space.
- A small booster engine would then ignite to propel the payload to orbital velocity.
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