#1434: Barrelauncher

Multistage rockets work well but today’s invention is a possible enhancement.

Each stage is nested within the previous one, so that when its annular rocket is ignited, the expanding gas pushes against the mass of the previous, expended can and provides the subsequent, nested stages with some extra boost as they travel together down the bore (like a shell fired from a flying cannon).

Having a large number of stages would allow orbit to be achieved, even if there were some misfires, in a way that would make a conventional rocket just too long and unwieldy.