Company:SpinLaunch

From HandWiki
SpinLaunch Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryAerospace
Founded2014
FounderJonathan Yaney
Headquarters4350 E Conant St,
Long Beach, California
,
United States
Key people
CEO: David Wrenn
Number of employees
120–180 (estimate)
Website{{{1}}}
Footnotes / references
California Secretary of State,[1] Built in LA[2]

SpinLaunch is a spaceflight technology development company working on mass accelerator technology to move payloads to space.[3] As of September 2022, the company has raised US$150 million in funding, with investors including Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Airbus Ventures, ATW Partners, Catapult Ventures, Lauder Partners, John Doerr, and the Byers Family.[4][5]

History

SpinLaunch was founded in 2014 by Jonathan Yaney in Sunnyvale, California. The company's headquarters are in Long Beach.[6] In 2020 it opened a launch site. SpinLaunch continued development of its 140,000 square-foot (13,000 m2) corporate headquarters in Long Beach, and of its flight test facility at Spaceport America in New Mexico.[7]

In late 2021, SpinLaunch was named one of the "World's Best Employers in the Space Industry" by Everything Space, a recruitment platform specializing in the space industry.[8]

In March 2022, SpinLaunch was listed as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Companies of 2022 by Time Magazine. In April, SpinLaunch received a launch contract from NASA to test a payload.[9][10]

In May 2024, SpinLaunch named Chief Operating Officer David Wrenn as Chief Executive Officer, replacing Jonathan Yaney. No specific rationale for Yaney's "completed" departure from SpinLaunch was provided.[11]

In April 2025 after a long hiatus, the company announced a plan to develop a communications satellite constellation called Meridian consisting of 280 satellites, but they would be launched via conventional chemical rockets. It was still planning to develop kinetic launch systems and also announced a study to investigate Adak Island, Alaska as a launch site.[12]

Technology

SpinLaunch is developing a kinetic energy space launch system that aims to reduce dependency on traditional chemical rockets, with the goal of significantly lowering the cost of access to space while increasing launch frequency. The system utilizes centrifugal force with slingshot action to accelerate rockets to eventually reach low Earth orbit. The vacuum-sealed centrifuge is able to spin a rocket at speeds of up to 4,700 mph (7,500 km/h; 2.1 km/s) before releasing it on a trajectory path headed towards low Earth orbit. Once the rocket reaches an altitude of roughly 200,000 ft (60 km), the rocket would then ignite its engines in order to reach an orbital speed of 17,150 mph (27,600 km/h; 7.666 km/s). Such rockets would be able to carry payloads of up to 440 lb (200 kg), with a peak centrifugal acceleration of approximately 10,000 g.[13] Historical predecessors of this system include centrifugal guns.

If successful, the centrifuge sling launch concept is projected to lower the cost of launches and use less power, with the price of a single space launch potentially reduced by a factor of 20 to under US$500,000.[14][15]

Considerations

Limitations

Any equipment or goods delivered by SpinLaunch must be capable of withstanding up to 10,000 G's of force during the centrifugal acceleration process. Additionally, no more than 880 lb (400 kg) of payload can be sent per launch.[16]

Advantages

SpinLaunch provides a ground-based impulse to the launch vehicle, providing a shortcut around the rocket equation that dictates a conventional rocket's fuel needs grows exponentially with the weight of the payload. Due to this innovation, the projected cost per kilogram of payload is approximately $1,250 – $2,500. This projection is significantly less expensive than SpaceX's current price per kilogram of payload on the Falcon 9 of $6,000.[16]

Flight testing

  • On October 22, 2021 at its Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, SpinLaunch conducted its first vertical test of their accelerator situated at 20% of its full power capacity, hurling a 10-foot-long (3.0 m) passive projectile to an altitude of "tens of thousands of feet." This test accelerator, which is situated at 32°53'6"N 106°56'18"W, is 108 ft (33 m) in diameter, which makes it a one-third scale of the operational system that is being designed.[17][18][19] The company's first 10 test flights reached as much as 30,000 feet (9,100 m) in altitude.
  • A September 2022 test flight successfully carried payloads from NASA, Airbus US, Cornell Engineering’s Space Systems Design Studio (SSDS), and Outpost. The flight followed the trajectory that had been laid in for it. After the flight all contents of the payload were inspected and found to be in good order.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Business Search". California Secretary of State. https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/. 
  2. ↑ "SpinLaunch LA Office: Careers, Perks + Culture". https://www.builtinla.com/company/spinlaunch/. 
  3. ↑ Oberhaus, Daniel (2019-10-15). "Stories of People Who Are Racing to Save Us". Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/wired25-stories-people-racing-to-save-us/. Retrieved 2019-10-15. 
  4. ↑ Chowdhry, Amit (2020-01-20). "SpinLaunch Raises $35 Million for the First Kinetic Launch System". https://pulse2.com/spinlaunch-raises-35-million/. 
  5. ↑ "SpinLaunch Closes $71M Series B Funding Round". Business Wire (US). 2022-09-20. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220920005499/en/SpinLaunch-Closes-71M-Series-B-Funding-Round. 
  6. ↑ Malik, Tariq (June 19, 2019). "Secretive Startup SpinLaunch Gets 1st Launch Contract for US Military". Space.com. https://www.space.com/spinlaunch-first-launch-contract.html/. 
  7. ↑ Wall, Mike (2020-01-16). "Stealth Space Startup SpinLaunch Snares Another $35 Million From Investors". https://www.space.com/spinlaunch-launch-startup-investment-funding.html. 
  8. ↑ "World's Best Employers in the Space Industry". https://everythingspace.com/blog/worlds-best-employers-in-the-space-industry. 
  9. ↑ Wall, Mike (2022-04-06). "SpinLaunch's rocket-flinging launch system will loft NASA payload on test flight this year". https://www.space.com/spinlaunch-nasa-suborbital-test-flight-agreement. 
  10. ↑ Coldewey, Devin (2022-04-06). "SpinLaunch scores NASA test mission to demonstrate its unique launch method". https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/06/spinlaunch-scores-nasa-test-mission-to-demonstrate-its-unique-launch-method/. 
  11. ↑ "SpinLaunch Board Announces Leadership Transition". 2024-05-10. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240510636849/en/. 
  12. ↑ Berger, Eric (4 April 2025). "SpinLaunch—yes, the centrifuge rocket company—is making a hard pivot to satellites" (in en). Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/spinlaunch-yes-the-centrifuge-rocket-company-is-making-a-hard-pivot-to-satellites/. 
  13. ↑ Allain, Rhett. "Hurling Satellites Into Space Seems Crazy—but Might Just Work". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/hurling-satellites-into-space/. Retrieved 2022-04-10. 
  14. ↑ Constine, Josh (22 February 2018). "Stealth space catapult startup SpinLaunch is raising $30M". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/22/spinlaunch/. 
  15. ↑ Oberhaus, Daniel (January 29, 2020). "Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry's Best Kept Secret". Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/inside-spinlaunch-the-space-industrys-best-kept-secret/. Retrieved February 9, 2021. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "SpinLaunch: Company Profile". US. February 12, 2024. https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2024/02/12/spinlaunch-company-profile/. 
  17. ↑ Sheetz, Michael (2021-11-09). "Alternative rocket builder SpinLaunch completes first test flight". https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/09/spinlaunch-completes-first-test-flight-of-alternative-rocket.html. 
  18. ↑ @SpinLaunch. "Scott, good eye. However, "Flight #1" was a successful horizontal flight. (the entire vacuum chamber assembly can rotate to a variety of launch elevations for testing & range flexibility)". https://twitter.com/SpinLaunch/status/1458188552085196800.  Missing or empty |date= (help)
  19. ↑ "SpinLaunch conducts first test of suborbital accelerator at Spaceport America". 2021-11-10. https://spacenews.com/spinlaunch-conducts-first-test-of-suborbital-accelerator-at-spaceport-america/. 
  20. ↑ Sampson, Ben (October 14, 2022). "SpinLaunch completes tenth flight test with payloads from NASA and Airbus". Aerospace Testing International (UK). https://www.aerospacetestinginternational.com/news/space/spinlaunch-completes-tenth-flight-test-with-payloads-from-nasa-and-airbus.html. 
  • No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.
  • SpinLaunch Suborbital Accelerator — First Launch. SpinLaunch. November 12, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2024 – via YouTube.
  • Can We Throw Satellites to Space? – SpinLaunch. Real Engineering. August 6, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2024 – via YouTube.
  • What Happened To SpinLaunch & The Orbital Accelerator?. TheSpaceBucket. September 3, 2023. Retrieved November 11, 2024 – via YouTube.
  • Is SpinLaunch Still Trying To Make An Orbital Accelerator?. TheSpaceBucket. November 7, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2024 – via YouTube.



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