The company announced April 3 that it signed a contract worth 122.5 million euros ($136 million) with smallsat manufacturer Kongsberg NanoAvionics to produce 280 satellites for a constellation called Meridian Space.

SpinLaunch has publicly been working for several years on a launch system that would use a centrifuge to accelerate vehicles to hypersonic speeds, effectively replacing the first stage of a conventional launch vehicle. However, at the same time it was also thinking about the satellites that could be launched by such a system.

Hmm, a bold move for a company which has not achieved orbit yet.

SpinLaunch is now moving ahead with Meridian Space separate from its launch system, seeking a share of the strong demand for broadband satellite services.

Ah, there we go.

SpinLaunch will turn to others to launch the initial Meridian Space constellation. “We’re currently engaged with a multitude of launch providers, and there’s certainly a number of available launch systems,” Wrenn said.

The company is not abandoning plans for its own unconventional launch system. SpinLaunch separately announced April 3 that it signed a lease agreement with The Aleut Corporation, an Alaska Native regional corporation, for land on Adak Island, located in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands at nearly 180 degrees longitude.

Wrenn said the agreement marked an “exploratory phase” for development of its Orbital Launch System, which would feature a centrifuge 100 meters in diameter. “We looked everywhere in the U.S., and thinking internationally, and Adak has a unique combination of features that make it a very attractive prospective launch site,” he said, including infrastructure from a former military base and commercial airline service.

I hope they do eventually build this. I want to see an upper stage yeeted to orbital velocity by a giant centrifuge.