Green Launch

Green Launch is an American aerospace company developing alternative space launch technologies based on ground-based "impulse launchers" designed to reduce the cost of sending payloads into orbit. The company focuses on replacing the first stage of traditional rockets with hydrogen-powered light-gas launch systems that accelerate payloads from the ground before a secondary propulsion stage places them into orbit.¹²³⁴

Green Launch targets small, acceleration-tolerant payloads such as CubeSats and aims to provide low-cost and rapid launch services, including suborbital missions for hypersonic testing and atmospheric research.⁵¹ The concept builds on technologies previously developed in NASA and U.S. Air Force testing facilities over several decades.⁵

In December 2021, the company conducted a test of a vertical hydrogen light-gas launcher at Yuma Proving Ground, accelerating a projectile to speeds exceeding Mach 3 as a proof of concept for future space launch applications.⁶

Green Launch plans to scale this technology toward reaching the Karman line and eventually enabling orbital delivery of small payloads.⁷⁸