Green Launch (company)

Green Launch is a company that is currently attempting to use a Hydrogen Impulse Launch System to deliver payloads into low Earth orbit. It is in concept a spin-off of the SHARP project which ended 1998.
Green Launch
The Green Launch system is based on the light-gas gun, using hydrogen gas as the working fluid and natural gas, electric grid or solar power as the energy source. Heating and pre-pressurizing the hydrogen working gas takes place before the launch and most of the hydrogen is recovered by a muzzle muffler at the end of the launch tube to be reused for subsequent launches.
The first orbital commercial offering could be a system that can launch (5 kg) small sat payloads into orbit with the aid of an onboard rocket that puts the payload into a specific orbit. The competitive advantages over all rocket launch include, lower cost, short lead time, 5 times payload fraction and much less pollution.
One eventual proposed configuration, a 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) long tube that would be placed along the side of a mountain or mounted in an angled tunnel. Ideally its horizontal and vertical direction (azimuth and elevation) could be adjusted based on customer launch requirements.
The proposed launcher is designed to give projectiles an initial speed of 6 km/s (3.7 mi/s) while mean orbital velocity needed to maintain a stable low Earth orbit is about 7.8 km/s. The projectile design therefore must include a one-stage rocket which circularizes the orbit once the vehicle is in space. The total delta-v needed to achieve low Earth orbit with the Green Launch system starts around 9.0 km/s when accounting for losses due to the atmosphere etc. The designed payloads will include spacecraft, satellites, consumable supplies such as water or fuel to supply a propellant depot in orbit.
Projected dollar cost per pound to orbit is $100 ($200/kg).

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