Space catapult gets $40m investment

ASilicon Valley start-up plans to build a machine meant to hurl rockets into space and has secured $40 million from some top technology investors, its founder Jonathan Yaney said.

SpinLaunch remains tight-lipped about exactly how the contraption will work, although its name gives away the basic idea. Rather than using propellants like kerosene and liquid oxygen to ignite a fire under a rocket, SpinLaunch plans to get a rocket spinning in a circle at up to 5,000 miles per hour and then let it go — more or less throwing the rocket to the edge of space, at which point it can light up and deliver objects like satellites into orbit.

SpinLaunch’s so-called kinetic energy launch system would use electricity to accelerate a projectile and help do much of the dirty work fighting through gravity and the atmosphere. In theory, this means the company could build a simpler, less expensive rocket that’s more efficient at ferrying satellites.

An impressive group of investors have signed on to support Yaney’s vision. The bulk of the $40 million came from Alphabet’s GV (formerly Google Ventures), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Airbus Ventures.

Over the past few years, the rocket industry has become quite crowded. Following Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies, dozens of companies have appeared, trying to make small, cheap rockets. The small rockets, though, are really just miniaturised versions of the larger ones. SpinLaunch is an entirely new take on the rocket-launch concept itself. “We are very intrigued by SpinLaunch’s innovative use of rotational kinetic energy to revolutionise the small satellite market,” Wen Hsieh, a general partner at Kleiner Perkins, said.

SpinLaunch has a working prototype of its launcher. The start-up plans to begin launching by 2022. It will charge less than $500,000 per launch and be able to send up multiple rockets per day.