Slingatron shoots stuff into space on the cheap

From the Sci Fi Tech blog:

The problem with putting stuff in space is that it's just so damn expensive; otherwise everybody would be doing it (apart from just governments and eccentric billionaires). Sending a mere pound of material into space these days costs over $10,000 using conventional rockets. Thinking unconventionally, Derek Tidman, president of Advanced Launch Corporation, came up with the Slingatron: a launcher that shoots projectiles into space by spinning them faster and faster until they reach escape velocity and then firing them up into the final frontier.