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Can Spinlaunch Throw Rockets Into Space?

Scott Manley · 3.2M views · 2021-11-10 · 11:08

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Overview

Scott Manley looks at SpinLaunch, which aims to throw launch vehicles out of a spinning launcher at hypersonic speed. He covers its recent Mach 1 test of a one-third scale launcher and the engineering problems that remain.

On Hacker News

HN treats it as the more informed, balanced take on SpinLaunch's tradeoffs.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2021–2022

Topics

Space exploration & spaceflightMechanical & precision engineering
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spinlaunchrocket launchspace launch costsscott manleyaerospace engineering

What people said

Robotbeat · 2021-12 · Strong recommendation

Man, I have my opinions on Spinlaunch, too, but I find thunderf*t’s videos (especially the BUSTED ones) unenlightening & unhelpful to rationally discussing the pros and cons of some technology. Scott Manley’s video (if video is the format you prefer) on Spinlaunch was much better. Scott Manley also has a much better understanding of rockets and space technology than thunderf*t. [VIDEO]

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dotnet00 · 2022-04 · Recommendation

I think their basic idea is sound, it'll probably eventually function. My concerns are if it'll be worth it, since there's a trade-off being made between fuel mass and heat shield mass, and at least based on Scott Manley's summary video this week, the rocket with the heat shield is close to the same mass as the Electron rocket. In which case I'm not sure the complexity of SpinLaunch is worth it. Edit: the video in question: [LINK] and a more honest and detailed look at the company, again from Scott: [VIDEO]

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LeifCarrotson · 2022-04 · Reference

Scott Manley also put out a video on Spinlaunch: [VIDEO] He...encourages caution. It's one thing to call a technology "debunked", another to say it's very difficult or that it has a low probability of success.

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Sources

Video by Scott Manley, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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