SpinLaunch

SpinLaunch
Company type	Private
Industry	Aerospace
Founded	January 1, 2014; 12 years ago in Sunnyvale, California, United States
Founder	Jonathan Yaney
Headquarters	Long Beach, United States
Area served	Global (space launch services)
Key people	David Wrenn (CEO)
Products	Kinetic energy space launch system, satellite constellation plans (Meridian)
Website	spinlaunch.com

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article SpinLaunch, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 28 November 2025

SpinLaunch is a company specializing in spaceflight technology, focused on creating mass accelerator systems to propel payloads into orbit. By September 2022, it had raised US$150 million in investments from backers such as Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Airbus Ventures, ATW Partners, Catapult Ventures, Lauder Partners, John Doerr, and the Byers Family.

History

Established in 2014 by Jonathan Yaney in Sunnyvale, California, SpinLaunch is now based in Long Beach. In 2020, the company inaugurated a launch facility and constructed a 140,000 square-foot headquarters in Long Beach, alongside a flight test site at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Towards the end of 2021, Everything Space—a recruitment platform for the aerospace sector—named SpinLaunch among the "World's Best Employers in the Space Industry."

By March 2022, SpinLaunch earned a spot on Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential Companies list. The following month, it secured a contract with NASA to conduct payload testing utilizing its novel launch technology.

In May 2024, David Wrenn succeeded Jonathan Yaney as Chief Executive Officer, with no detailed information released regarding Yaney’s exit.

In April 2025, after a period of inactivity, SpinLaunch revealed intentions to develop the Meridian satellite constellation consisting of 280 communications satellites, which will be launched using traditional chemical rockets. The firm remains committed to advancing its kinetic launch approach and has initiated an assessment of Adak Island, Alaska as a potential site for future launches.

Technology

SpinLaunch is advancing a kinetic energy space launch mechanism aimed at minimizing dependence on conventional chemical rocket propulsion to reduce costs and increase launch cadence. Its vacuum-sealed centrifuge accelerates rockets up to , releasing them on a trajectory toward low Earth orbit. At roughly altitude, onboard engines ignite to achieve orbital velocity of . The system can carry payloads up to , enduring peak centrifugal forces near 10,000 g. This approach is inspired by earlier centrifugal gun designs.

If proven effective, SpinLaunch’s centrifuge-based method could decrease launch expenses by as much as twentyfold, potentially bringing costs below per launch.

Limitations

Payloads must tolerate acceleration forces reaching 10,000 g, limiting the types of cargo that can be transported. The maximum payload capacity per launch is .

Advantages

By utilizing a ground-based impulse system, SpinLaunch circumvents the constraints imposed by the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, which causes traditional rockets’ fuel requirements to increase exponentially with payload mass. This innovation could reduce cost per kilogram to approximately $1,250–$2,500—substantially less than SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rate of $6,000 per kilogram.

Flight testing

On October 22, 2021, at its Spaceport America location in New Mexico, SpinLaunch performed its inaugural vertical test of a 33-meter-diameter accelerator operating at 20% power. This trial launched a passive projectile measuring 10 feet to an altitude of tens of thousands of feet. The test apparatus represents one-third the scale of the anticipated full-scale system.
By September 2022, SpinLaunch had successfully completed a test flight carrying payloads from NASA, Airbus US, Cornell Engineering’s Space Systems Design Studio (SSDS), and Outpost. The flight adhered to its intended trajectory and post-flight evaluation confirmed all payloads remained undamaged.

External links