The Payload NASA Shot Into Sky With Giant Gun Came Down So Hard They Needed to Dig It Out With an Excavator
The Byte by Frank Landymore
Last month, space launch startup SpinLaunch shot a payload tens of thousands of feet into the air using a gigantic slingshot for the tenth time.
And what comes up must come down.
As expected, the payload came crashing down — but even harder than one might think, requiring a massive excavator to exhume it.
The test was carried out in September, but it wasn’t until a few days ago that SpinLaunch uploaded a video on its YouTube channel documenting the event.
The video shows the recovery crew heading out to where the payload, containing instruments, sensors, and ChipSats from the likes of NASA, Cornell University, and Airbus, slammed into the Earth, burying itself deep enough to require extensive machinery to recover it.
Amazingly, according to SpinLaunch’s press release, everything in the payload was undamaged — both at launch when it was blasted into the atmosphere at 10,000 Gs, and after it hit the ground.
More:
https://futurism.com/the-byte/payload-nasa-spinlaunch-excavatorhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_50TM3OeEw