A new video gives us a dramatic look at space startup SpinLaunch’s unique launch strategy.
SpinLaunch plans to accelerate the rockets to enormous speeds on land using a rotating arm, then launch them high into the sky, where they’ll ignite their engines and head into orbit. This new methodology will allow SpinLaunch to launch low-cost, high-rate satellites, according to company representatives.
SpinLaunch tested the idea using the 165-foot-tall (50-meter) suborbital accelerator it built at Spaceport America in New Mexico. On April 22, for example, the California-based company conducted its eighth test flight from the facility, launching a 10-foot-long (3 m) test vehicle into the sky at more than 1,000 mph (1 600 km/h).
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This vehicle carried a digital camera, a first for a SpinLaunch test flight. And on April 28, the company released some of the resulting images on YouTube.
The 70-second video is quite a sight, showing the reddish-brown New Mexico desert spinning rapidly beneath the soaring test vehicle. But fear not, those with weak stomachs: the rotation begins to slow towards the end, and we even get a brief glimpse of the blackness of space.
Putting a camera on the test vehicle had undeniable value, as the recent video shows. But that’s not the main reason why SpinLaunch did it.
“Flying with the digital camera system on board marks an important step towards integrating complex payloads into SpinLaunch flight test vehicles,” company representatives said in a description of the YouTube video.
SpinLaunch recently announced that NASA has signed on to launch a payload using the suborbital accelerator, on a test flight should take place later this year.
Such work will help the company continue to progress toward orbital flight, which SpinLaunch aims to achieve by 2025. The first orbital launches will take place from a coastal site in the United States, the company says. . will announce soon.
Mike Wall is the author of “The low(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom Or on Facebook.