Launches: Slingshot to space!
Late last month (September 2022), a plucky group of aerospace engineers and techs using their monumentally oversized centrifuge successfully threw a demo payload – including a NASA test package – into space from the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico, U.S.
With the goal of providing affordable and rapid cargo launches, the team from SpinLaunch has constructed an enormous centrifuge inside a disk-shaped vacuum chamber that can fling an unpowered vehicle into near space. The launcher stands more than 50 meters (165 feet) high, slightly taller than the 46-meter (151-foot) Statue of Liberty.
What amounts to the world’s biggest slingshot is located at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The company uses the machine to launch payloads at speeds up to 4,700 mph (7,500 kph). It also plans an orbital version.
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 their satellites and test equipment can withstand the force of a launch leaving the ground at top speed. SpinLaunch’s A-33 Suborbital Mass Accelerator produces up to 10,000 gravities during a launch. Therefore, it is not suitable for living passengers.
The company announced their 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 is using a mass accelerator to throw payloads into space.
Launches: Crew-5 has docked with ISS
The post Launches: Slingshot to space! first appeared on EarthSky.
0 Commentaires