Meet the machine built to launch things into space

You’ve seen it in cartoons: the hero swings his arms at incredible speed and throws something at an impressive height. It could be anything, be it a ball, baseball bat, or Team Rocket, but the object enters space orbit. And a machine invented in the United States does exactly that to launch satellites into space.

The aim of SpinLaunch, the company responsible for the invention, is to create an alternative to launching satellites, which currently depends on rockets and expensive fuels and has a huge environmental impact. The first tests (see video below) were successful.

The idea seems crazy. The launch is made from a centrifuge, and inside the payload is placed inside a carbon fiber capsule attached to a rope and a counterweight.

In order to eliminate as much friction as possible, the internal air of the mechanism is almost completely pumped out. The cable then begins to spin and accelerates to thousands of kilometers per hour before launching the projectile flying into space.

“This is a radically different way of accelerating projectiles and launching vehicles at hypersonic speeds using a ground system,” SpinLaunch CEO Jonathan Yaney tells CNBC.

“It’s about building a company and a space launch system that will enter commercial markets at a very high rate and launch at the lowest cost in the industry,” adds the executive.

But it’s a simple enough way that the company expects to launch rockets for less than $500,000. It may seem like a lot, but it’s insignificant compared to the current 50 million cost of using rockets.

SpinLaunch plans to make a 3x larger launcher by 2025. With it, it will be possible to send payloads of up to 200 kilograms into space in the lowest orbit of the planet. But this is just the beginning.

The company already has contracts with NASA and the US Pentagon and has ambitious plans for the future. They estimate that with a system powered by renewable energy, they could perform 5 to 10 launches per day.