Forget rockets — Longshot wants to fire cargo into space from a gun. See it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 — SkimNews
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- Longshot Space Technology, founded by CEO Mike Grace and CTO Nato Saichek, has raised about $20 million to apply WWII-era multi-injection gun technology to cargo launch, comparing its approach to SpaceX scaling NASA rocket research.
- Longshot is firing a 70-foot, 6-inch-diameter gun near Barstow, California, and plans to start testing a 140-foot, 30-inch-diameter gun at its Alameda headquarters next.
- The 3,000-foot, 30-inch-diameter gun Longshot envisions—touted as the largest gun on the planet—would launch 220-pound payloads at Mach 8.
- Grace pitches the system as offering hypersonic "clay pigeons" for $250,000–$500,000 per test, compared to $30 million for current hypersonic missile drills, with US military contracts already in hand.
- Putting payloads in orbit requires a 6-mile-long, 10-foot-diameter gun to accelerate them to 5 km/s, with the projectile acting as a rocket's second stage; Longshot targets $50 per kilogram—about a sixth of the $300/kg threshold orbital data center operators say they need to scale.
- Longshot is demoing at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco this week.
Why it matters: Longshot already has US military contracts, and Grace pitches hypersonic target practice at $250,000–$500,000 per shot—a fraction of the $30 million current tests cost. The $50/kg space launch target, if realized, crosses the $300/kg threshold the orbital data center industry says it needs to scale.
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