'Rocket-on-a-rail' prepares to launch satellite

The US military is about to use a mindboggling set-up to launch a satellite: a rocket that whizzes along a rail before taking off. The rocket is scheduled to launch from a 41-metre-long metal rail, placed at a 45-degree angle at site on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, as soon as 1 November. If all goes well, the vehicle will carry an Earth-imaging satellite all the way to space. In some ways, the rail-guided launch system is retro — its design is based on a 1960s rocket meant to test a nuclear warhead in the high atmosphere — but it is also forward-looking. More

(Source: Nature.com - Oct 31)