Spinlaunch releases video of its 7th test launch
Capitalism in space: Spinlaunch on April 18th released a video providing what it calls “an inside look” at the company’s procedures during its 7th test launch on March 22, 2022.
I have embedded the video below. Note that on this test launch, the projectile was lifted to only about 30,000 feet, which does not qualify it as a suborbital space flight. Still, the video also indicates that their test projectile not only survived the launch’s extremely high accelerations, reaching a speed of 1,200 miles per hour in mere seconds, but once it hit the ground it was in good enough shape to reuse.
The video also reveals one other interesting fact. Their mission control consisted of only two people, significantly less than the mission control staffs used by the commercial rocket companies, which are themselves significantly less that the mission control teams that NASA has used.
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Capitalism in space: Spinlaunch on April 18th released a video providing what it calls “an inside look” at the company’s procedures during its 7th test launch on March 22, 2022.
I have embedded the video below. Note that on this test launch, the projectile was lifted to only about 30,000 feet, which does not qualify it as a suborbital space flight. Still, the video also indicates that their test projectile not only survived the launch’s extremely high accelerations, reaching a speed of 1,200 miles per hour in mere seconds, but once it hit the ground it was in good enough shape to reuse.
The video also reveals one other interesting fact. Their mission control consisted of only two people, significantly less than the mission control staffs used by the commercial rocket companies, which are themselves significantly less that the mission control teams that NASA has used.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Two people really is all that is needed at this point.
It looks like spin control, and some very basic telemetry. As they gain more complexity, I would expect see more, as the 2nd stage is to have a rocket. Communications will need to be more robust with real payloads. Communications beyond the launch site, such as range control/FAA airspace control integration, etc. Those are not really needed too much at this stage, but I can see them growing, if they can make this work.
Still trying to figure out the counterbalance issue. I am not sure, but looking at this and other vids, I am wondering if they do not release a liquid counterweight at the same time. It looks like a vent 180 degrees from the release point. Just a guess though.
I love that company. What a great concept!
For those interested in the math…
https://www.wired.com/story/hurling-satellites-into-space/
Sure the gs are high, but still, its good on so many levels.
And 2 people controlling the whole thing is great!
And the production values of the clip are great!
I like the music too!
Plus the hole in the ground where the rocket hit PLUS they will reuse the rocket they dug out!
I better get a Pepsi (diet) and cool off from this excitement. Finally some real innovative launch system.
Here is a video from a while back with more details on the concept and excellent footage of their facility and renderings of what the eventual version might look like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAczd3mt3X0
I wonder if it might be more viable to spin up several “master” projectiles with strong magnets or some other transfer mechanism, and fire them past the “slave” payload in quick succession. That way all you’re spinning up and subjecting to the long duration high g’s is a big magnet, basically, and then the payload carrier takes 4 or 5 lesser jolts in quick succession.
There was a lot of debris that came off that thing as it exited the spin launcher. I wonder what all that stuff was. Maybe they are using some kind of sabot in their system but I’m just not sure.
Sabot: A device that allows a projectile of a smaller caliber to be fired from a weapon of a larger caliber by filling the weapon’s bore and keeping the projectile centered. The sabot normally separates and falls away from the projectile a short distance from the muzzle.
1,200 mph is about 1,760 fps which is high power pistol velocity. Well under Mach two. To say I don’t believe it scales is an understatement. I can’t remember the exponent for tether scaling. I can remember that it is quite high when velocity gets high compared to material strength.
I think all that debris was the cover on the top of the spin launcher. Don’t they evacuate the spin chamber? There has to be something between the chamber and the outside atmosphere..
Instead of a counterweight maybe two projectiles
Like John Hare says, this thing doesn’t feel too scaleable. I think a much more likely approach is the good ole Jules Verne space cannon idea. Project HARP still holds the altitude record at something like 130 km reached in 1966, using basically two 16 in barrels somewhat like on the USS Missouri welded in series. The latest incarnation is currently out at Yuma —see https://greenlaunch.space/
Scott Lowther of http://www.up-ship.com takes a rather dim view. Now, I wonder if disk shaped pye wacket deals might be more doable-there are spinning disk submunitions.