Longshot raises $5M from South Park Commons to scale its kinetic 'space gun'

What's the deal? LongshotDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an Alameda-based defence and space technology company, has raised $5 million from South Park Commons.

The investment brings its total funding to $20 million. The capital will fund testing of its multi-injection accelerator — a ground-based "space gun" designed to launch payloads to hypersonic speeds.

Why now? Demand for moving payloads at extreme speeds is climbing.

Governments are pouring money into hypersonic and missile-defence capabilities, while commercial space firms hunt for cheaper routes to orbit.

The funds will support a new test gun, built to accelerate 100kg payloads past Mach 5 — a step toward larger launch systems.

"For decades, access to space has been constrained by the economics of rockets," said founder and chief executive officer Mike Grace. "We're pursuing a fundamentally different approach."

What could go wrong? The technology remains unproven at scale.

Longshot must move from prototypes — its largest, nicknamed the "minigun" — to systems that reliably reach orbit, a leap no kinetic launcher has yet made.

The signal: Longshot remains an early-stage company, and South Park Commons — an investment fund — is doubling down at a moment when the broader space economy is hunting for cheaper ways to move mass at speed. The addition of former Raytheon chief innovation officer Mark Bigham to lead government relations underlines how seriously the venture is courting defence demand alongside commercial launch ambitions.

Read more: Business Insider

Image credit: AI-generated image (Gemini)