For posterity: By "one orbit", I do not mean "payload goes around the Earth only once before re-entry", I mean "one orbital inclination". Theoretically, by choosing when you ignite the second stage, you can fiddle with the inclination a little, but you don't have many options on that when a) you're not even close to orbital after the first stage and b) the second stage is a bottle rocket-like solid-propellant engine that, once lit, cannot be unlit.

But yes, GTO at perigee is something like 10 km/s, a few hundred km high. Your first perigee, effectively, is when you come out of the launcher at a measly 2 km/s, 0 km high. According to the SpinLaunch wikipedia page, the second stage will fire around 61 km altitude, and hah, by then, you will not be traveling 2 km/s. Probably not even 1 km/s. For comparison, this Atlas V GTO launch has the second stage begin firing at 120 km, traveling at 5 km/s. If the second stage of an Atlas V is 7% of the initial mass, one million kg, that's 70,000 kg. In the lovely puff piece above, we are told that the SpinLaunch payload and second stage are 10,000 kg, combined. I don't think it really matters what the actual payload weighs, because unless SpinLaunch is also working towards developing the first instance of negative mass observed in the universe, there isn't a goddamn thing making it into orbit.

I kid about SpinLaunch stickin' it to VC funders, but I'm sure the legacy will be one of embarrassment for the space industry. At this point, I'm surprised more people aren't speaking up about how much of a blatant scam this is.

How's this on a red hat, btw? "MAKE VC VIETCONG AGAIN"