Longshot raises $20M to fire cargo into space with giant guns
What's the deal? Longshot SpaceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Technology, an Alameda, California startup, has raised $20 million to build multi-injection guns that launch payloads into space and test hypersonic missiles. Chief executive officer Mike Grace and chief technology officer Nato Saichek lead the company. The approach collapses a rocket's first stage into a reusable, ground-based accelerator.
How it works: A steel pipe is mounted horizontally, flanked by high-pressure gas tanks that release gas at precise intervals to accelerate a projectile down the barrel. The designs date to World War II and 1960s research programs. So far, the company has hit speeds of Mach 4.
Why now? Tests serve a dual purpose: refining hardware while generating revenue from US military hypersonic testing contracts. Testing interceptors against Chinese or Russian hypersonic missiles typically costs $30 million per run — an expense Grace believes his technology can cut to a fraction of a million dollars.
What's the endgame? The team is building progressively larger guns, from a 70-foot test gun near Barstow to an eventual 3,000-foot structure that could launch 220-pound payloads at Mach 8. Reaching orbit would require a gun roughly six miles long and nearly 10 feet in diameter, with payloads carrying their own propulsion as a second stage.
The economics: Grace projects launch costs dropping to $50 per kilogram. With the emerging orbital data center industry needing prices near $300 per kilogram to be viable, Longshot sees room to capture market share — even if operators must modify hardware to survive launch.
What could go wrong? Finding a site is the primary hurdle. As Saichek puts it, building the hardware is easier than finding someone willing to let them build it.
The signal: The $20 million round ranks in the 92nd percentile of all-time early-stage deep tech venture deals in the US, a notable vote of confidence for a concept that stretches back to Jules Verne. It reflects investor appetite for radically cheaper paths to orbit as demand for space infrastructure grows.
Read more: misryoum.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
