Longshot Space Technology, an Alameda, California startup, is betting that a centuries-old idea—firing projectiles from a gun—can disrupt the space launch business. Co-founders Mike Grace and CTO Nato Saichek have raised roughly $20 million to scale up multi-injection gun designs originally developed for military research. Their approach replaces a rocket's first stage with a reusable, ground-based accelerator that pushes a lifting-body projectile to high speeds before it ignites its own propulsion to reach orbit.
The company is currently testing a 70-foot gun near Barstow, California, and plans to build progressively larger systems, culminating in a 3,000-foot gun that could launch 220-pound payloads at Mach 8. In the near term, Longshot is generating revenue from hypersonic testing contracts with the U.S. military, which needs cheap, repeatable targets for missile defense exercises. Grace argues that a single hypersonic test can cost $30 million, while his system could provide "hypersonic clay pigeons" for a few hundred thousand dollars.
The long-term business case rests on dramatic cost reduction. Longshot estimates it can deliver payloads to space for $50 per kilogram, compared with the roughly $300 per kilogram that analysts say would make orbital data centers viable. The company acknowledges significant engineering hurdles, including building a gun nearly six miles long and adapting spacecraft to the extreme acceleration. But if the technology scales as planned, it could offer a radically cheaper alternative to rockets for certain classes of cargo.