SpinLaunch, a company developing an alternative launch system that fires payloads at hypersonic speeds from a ground-based centrifuge, successfully fired its first projectile from a subscale version of its accelerator.
SpinLaunch expects to perform the first suborbital tests of a prototype of its centrifugal system for launching small satellites later this year from New Mexico.
SpinLaunch, a startup pursuing an alternative approach for placing payloads into orbit, has raised $35 million in a new funding round disclosed Jan. 16.