... Throwing (yeeting) rockets at about mach1 using electric motors to spin the propelling launcher's 100m rotating arm at 450rpm (that rotation speed is around 2km per second, about the same as a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage when it performs stage separation). The chamber is evacuated, so they cover the top of it with a thin membrane which the projectile just breaks when it shoots through it. It launches at around 10g apparently.

The disk with ejection barrel pictured below is about the length of the statue of liberty. They built and did a launch I think, but I don't think their full-scale version is built (which I think might be the image below).

The company is Spinlaunch.

Rockets use a lot of fuel just to get from earth to space.

#Space #Yeeting

$3.2b pricetag.

Benefit: microgravity. For manufacturing 3d printed organs, special-purpose semiconductors.

2023 plan: 3 months of Varda's spacecraft being up there, then a reentry capsule will return the finished product. 2024 two more factories to go up.

Varda is also building it's own capsule to return up to 100kg from space. They're focusing of frequency of reentry because it shows how they can return value after sending raw materials to space.

Varda hasn't said what it will produce up there (and might not yet know because they might not have a contract). Pharmaceuticals and fiberoptic were mentioned.

#Elon #Space

He said it was the 'experience of a lifetime.'

282k feet (53 miles).

About 800k people watched the largest of the YT livestreams, it looked like.

About a week later Bezos flew in his Blue Origin craft to 350k feet (66 miles).

NASA's designated Earth-Space boundary is 50 miles, but the Karman line is 100km.

#VirginGalactic #RichardBranson #Space #Achievement

... which looks similar to a 3d honeycomb, and whose cells have 14 sides each, 3d printed from flexible polymer, then heated until only pure carbon remained.

They shot sand-like particles at the lattice (similar to what space debris does). At low speeds it bounced off. At high speeds it gouged out craters, crushing the lattice, and remained lodged in the material (didn't pierce the material).

#MaterialsScience #Space