Max Q - Make space dumb again with Longshot

Hello and welcome back to Max Q!

In this issue:

• Making space dumb again with Longshot
• News from India’s space agency and more

Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend. 

Longshot Space wants to make space launch dumb — and really cheap

Rockets are among the greatest feats in human engineering, but to Longshot Space CEO Mike Grace, they’re an “overly exquisite solution” to the problem of sending megatons of inert mass to space.

“You need something that is dumber and much cheaper, both to build and to operate,” he said in a recent interview.

Longshot’s answer? A kinetic launch system that will be capable of reaching hypersonic speeds and shooting projectiles to orbital velocities, for less than the cost of a Netflix subscription.

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More news from across TC

• Astranis will launch a dedicated internet satellite to geosynchronous orbit for the Philippines, the company’s first foray outside the Americas.
• Congress is throwing even more money at Space Launch System and its associated architecture, even as NASA science missions face budget cuts.
• HawkEye 360 raised more funding, a sign that investor appetite for defense-first Earth observation companies is not slowing down.
• India’s Chandrayaan-3 blasted off to the moon, almost four years after its predecessor failed to touch down on the lunar surface.
• Starlink satellites are dodging orbits at an increasing rate as more objects are sent to space, alarming some researchers.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2023

Join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco this September as we explore the impact of space exploration on our world today. New this year, we will have a whole day dedicated to all things space, featuring some of today’s leading space figures. Save up to $800 when you buy your pass now through August 11, and save 15% on top of that with promo code MAXQ.

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• Chief of Staff at Groupbook (Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA)
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• Senior Full Stack Developer (.NET) at AAOS (Rosemont, IL, USA)

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