Ashlee Vance visits a space gun in an Oakland shipping container that fires metal projectiles at four times the speed of sound. The device is a legal experiment to launch cargo to orbit, situated between a Chuck E. Cheese and a homeless encampment in dense urban terrain.
It's apparently entirely legal to build a giant gun in the middle of a city. Because here we are in Oakland, California, inside of a shipping container. And here is some plastic tubing that can fire off metal projectiles at more than 4 times the speed of sound.
I tell people there's a Chuck E. Cheese's, a homeless encampment, a water treatment facility, AAA, and a space gun.
That's the cluster we're in. Why would anyone need such a big gun? And why would anyone let this guy be in charge of it? Well, this is about sending stuff to space and betting on— wait for it— a long shot.
