Inside the space start-up that plans to fling satellites to orbit
SpinLaunch may face a major obstacle up in the air because it does the opposite of a standard rocket, says Julián Rimoli, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of California, Irvine …. “I would expect this to get really hot,” Rimoli says, similar to how space capsules create mini-fireballs upon reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. That heat could prove disastrous for SpinLaunch’s precious cargo. … One of the biggest current unknowns: how SpinLaunch payloads will fare at much higher speeds, Rimoli says.