cosmoflux

Cargo to orbit for about $10 per kilogram.

At that price, large-scale space exploration becomes affordable: depots, stations, and in-space industry need far more mass in orbit than rockets can supply, because a rocket burns an entire vehicle to deliver a small payload fraction. Making that mass affordable is the reason Cosmoflux exists.

The machine is a ground-based light-gas gun, meant to fire cargo to 8 km/s; a small kick motor on the vehicle makes the final push into orbit. Every part of the launcher survives a shot, so a launch would spend only gas, electricity, and one simple vehicle.

Read the whitepaper PDF
The Veil Nebula
Veil Nebula, ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Levay (CC BY 4.0)