China is building a giant railgun to launch shuttles into orbit

The idea is to accelerate the target to a speed of at least Mach 1.6 by using “terrestrial” energy – nuclear power plants, large amounts of explosives or something else. This would eliminate the use of a rocket’s first stage and the huge amount of fuel in it. After acceleration, the spacecraft, already in the thin stratosphere and at high altitude, turns on the thrusters and gets to space with minimal effort.