📰 What Happened
A startup called Longshot wants to launch cargo into space using a giant gun. Rockets work, but they are costly and easy to get wrong. Even the best rockets send only a small share of their weight into orbit. Longshot is based in Alameda, California. Its founders, Mike Grace and Nato Saichek, say a powerful gun could fling cargo upward. The company has raised about $20 million from investors.
🔍 The Backstory
The idea of firing a craft into space with a cannon goes back to the writer Jules Verne. Longshot uses a design called a multi-injection gun. Extra bursts of power push the projectile as it travels down the barrel. This kind of design was studied for World War II and in the 1960s. Longshot compares itself to SpaceX. SpaceX took old NASA rocket research and made it work at huge scale. Longshot hopes to do the same with guns.
🎯 Why It Matters
Cheaper ways to reach space could lower the cost of satellite internet, GPS and science missions people rely on.

A startup called Longshot wants to launch cargo into space using a giant gun. Rockets work, but they are costly and easy to get wrong. Even the best rockets send only a small share of their weight into orbit. Longshot is based in Alameda, California. Its founders, Mike Grace and Nato Saichek, say a powerful gun could fling cargo upward. The company has raised about $20 million from investors.

The idea of firing a craft into space with a cannon goes back to the writer Jules Verne. Longshot uses a design called a multi-injection gun. Extra bursts of power push the projectile as it travels down the barrel. This kind of design was studied for World War II and in the 1960s. Longshot compares itself to SpaceX. SpaceX took old NASA rocket research and made it work at huge scale. Longshot hopes to do the same with guns.

Cheaper ways to reach space could lower the cost of satellite internet, GPS and science missions people rely on.

📰 Source: News Source
techcrunch.com ↗
Was this article useful?