Is SpinLaunch Making Progress On An Orbital Accelerator?
A majority of companies within the space industry are hard at work trying to increase access to space by lowering costs and increasing launch cadence. They are doing this in a wide variety of ways including partial and full reusability, large and small launch vehicles, and in one case, an orbital accelerator. For years now SpinLaunch has been testing and working to develop the future of sending payloads into Earth’s orbit.
The company’s unique approach has brought a lot of attention and doubt based on the ambitious goals and plans for the future. However, SpinLaunch is confident in its design and continues to try and build a working orbital accelerator. This brings up the question of what exactly have they been working on and has any progress been made over the past few years of operation?
If successful, SpinLaunch could change the way satellites and other technology is sent into orbit and even beyond. This being said, the company still has a very long road ahead of them in terms of development, tests, production, and much more. Here I will go more in-depth into what the company has been up to in recent months, what progress has been made, what to expect in the coming years, and more.
Recent Progress?
In terms of the most recent progress, it has been a while since the company’s most recent big update regarding suborbital and orbital accelerators. Specifically, back in April of this year, was SpinLaunch’s most recent suborbital launch test. At the time, the company was conducting these tests quite frequently, each time trying to slightly increase performance. The Suborbital Accelerator is designed to operate from 800 to 5,000 mph and acts primarily as a test-bed for the Orbital Launch System. On October 22nd, 2021, SpinLaunch’s first launch successfully propelled a test vehicle at supersonic speeds and ended with the recovery of the reusable flight vehicle. The company’s goal was to conduct regular test flights with a variety of vehicles and launch velocities throughout this year. This has somewhat been the case since the most recent test flight was the 8th ever. In addition, earlier this year the company was conducting these tests quite frequently with one in March and the next in April. This being said, we have not been given any more testing updates since then.
The Suborbital System is intended to offer testing capabilities to customers and provide long term value as a satellite qualification facility. Standing at just over 50 meters tall, this accelerator is the first step in SpinLaunch’s greater goal of creating an orbital accelerator. The suborbital system is quite a bit smaller and uses similar systems and components as the orbital variant. It utilizes a 1000 ton steel vacuum chamber, advanced composite tether, vacuum plant manifold, adjustable launch cradle, and more. All of which are working together to provide SpinLaunch with a platform to test the future of launching payloads into space. In terms of progress, SpinLaunch started development in early 2015. Less than two years later, the company surpassed the record for fastest rotational tip speeds and subsequently conducted hundreds of launches in its headquarters based laboratory. They point out that in October 2021, the first launch of the Suborbital System validated the technology and marked a key milestone for both the company and this project. Since then, they have continued testing the suborbital system, each time tweaking different aspects of the launch. For example, on the 7th test flight, they launched at 1,200 miles per hour which at the time was the fastest speed to date they had operated on that specific suborbital accelerator.
In addition to working on different tests and the suborbital accelerator, the company has made some progress in regards to gaining some support and contracts. Back in April, SpinLaunch signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA. Through this partnership, SpinLaunch will develop, integrate, and fly a NASA payload on the company’s Suborbital Accelerator Launch System to provide valuable information to NASA for potential future commercial launch opportunities. The Space Act Agreement is part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, which demonstrates promising technologies for space exploration, discovery, and the expansion of space commerce through suborbital testing with industry flight providers. SpinLaunch will manifest and fly the first NASA payload on a developmental test flight not long from now and provide means for post-flight recovery of payload back to NASA. The two organizations will work jointly to analyze the data and assess the system for future flight opportunities. After a full review, NASA and SpinLaunch will publish all non-proprietary launch environment information from the test flight.
It’s also important to point out that SpinLaunch has been working on space systems in addition to the suborbital and orbital accelerator. This includes a very long list of different components such as reaction wheels, satellite buses, power supplies, battery packs, solar panels, and so much more. The company highlights that they are trying to enable the rapid, cost-effective deployment of small satellite constellations.
Future of SpinLaunch
Now that we know what SpinLaunch has been working on and what some of the upcoming tests look like such as the launch of a NASA payload, we can take a closer look at the future of the company and its overall goal. SpinLaunch describes the Orbital Launch System as a fundamentally new way to reach space. They are confident the velocity boost provided by the accelerator’s electric drive results in a 4x reduction in the fuel required to reach orbit, a 10x reduction in cost, and the ability to launch multiple times per day. Not to mention SpinLaunch has the first customer launches planned only a few years from now in 2025. While this date seems extra ambitious, it’s clear the company is very confident in this system and its future.
This orbital accelerator consists of multiple massive and high strength pieces of equipment that need to work together in perfect harmony. Including the vacuum chamber itself which is expected to have around a 300ft diameter and facilitate the tether to spin close to 5,000 miles per hour. The hypersonic tether will be made of carbon fiber and spun by a central electric drive. Once at the proper speed, they will release the rocket at an exact time to send it up and to the edge of the atmosphere before the stage ignites and places the payload in orbit. During the early feasibility analysis of SpinLaunch’s global architecture, one area of primary interest was g-hardening. As such, an in-depth evaluation into existing industry examples of high-g capable sensors and systems was undertaken. Early research identified promising examples of complex high-g systems in the industry including artillery launched drones with deployable wings, propulsion, and optics. Following the completion of the 12 m prototype, a system capable of testing to over 20,000G’s, SpinLaunch’s engineering team began evaluating a variety of hardware packages at the 10,000G that components endure during the launch.
They point out that with industry plans to launch ten times the number of satellites over the next decade, it is more urgent than ever to develop environmentally sustainable space access technology. Because kinetically launched satellites exit the stratosphere without a rocket, SpinLaunch enables a future in which constellations of satellites and space payloads can be launched with zero emissions in the most critical layers of the atmosphere. They highlight that in a future where large numbers of people are traveling to space — structures, equipment, and supplies required to support in-space civilization must also be launched. For tens of thousands of people to someday work and live in space, millions of tons of infrastructure and supplies must be launched. SpinLaunch is working to ensure that can be done with the least environmental impact possible.
In addition, the company believes modern carbon fiber and miniature electronics are the most relevant reasons why SpinLaunch has not been possible until recently. Carbon Fiber emerged as a high-strength composite in the early 1960s and only recently transitioned from limited aerospace applications to widespread industrial usage. Low-cost high strength to weight materials like modern carbon fiber is a critical part of what makes SpinLaunch possible while modern electronics, materials, and simulation tools allow for satellites to be adapted to the kinetic launch environment with relative ease. The company also bases a lot of research and testing on the High Altitude Research Project in the 1960s. All of which contribute to the company’s confidence and ambitious goals of the future.
Conclusion
SpinLaunch is trying to completely change how small payloads are sent into space. For years now the company has been working on a suborbital accelerator which they have tested multiple times. The overall goal however is an orbital accelerator capable of consistently launching payloads into orbit at a reasonably low cost with extremely high launch cadence. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.