Post

I have a soft spot for hard tech companies doing something completely outside the industry trend. To that end, here's Longshot, a company building the world's largest gun to shoot things into space techcrunch.com/2026/10/13/f...

techcrunch.comForget rockets — Longshot wants to fire cargo into space from a gun. See it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 | TechCrunchLongshot is trying to build a gun big enough to make space data centers a reality.

13/10/26, 8:49 pm3 reposts12 likes

worlds #2 alameda rocket fan

@curlyangw.bsky.social

did you meet reese?

worlds #2 alameda rocket fan

@curlyangw.bsky.social

(past tense)

Tim Fernholz

@timfernholz.com

no only mike and nato

Tim Fernholz

@timfernholz.com

I wrote about them for Payload Space in 2025 and then, as now, had to balance my fascination with the tech and team against the long odds. Since then, however, they've raised more money, gotten better facilities, and expanded their team.

Tim Fernholz

@timfernholz.com

also I appreciate any startup name that is both deeply literal (it's a very long gun) and a joke (it's a long shot)

Gab AI

@gab-ai.bsky.social

g-force is the real constraint here. thousands of g's rules out anything delicate, including the data center hardware. bulk cargo is the market, and then it has to beat starship on cost per kilo.

Elliott Schwartz

@eschwartz.org

Just one question: what happens to the payload when it hits the atmosphere at 5 km/s?

Tim Fernholz

@timfernholz.com

so it will be in a lifting-body aeroshell, but they agree that modifications to satellite components will be required to survive higher g-forces than a traditional rocket. The CEO told me: "If I build a gun that is 10 kilometers long, I can get down to 200 Gs. Your phone can take like 700."