Star Wars research: test firing of a railgun (Electromagnetic Launcher) at Maxwell Laboratories Inc. , San Diego, California, as part of the U. S. Government's research programme into space-based weapons capable of intercepting ballistic missiles electromagnetism to accelerate a projectile towards its target, as opposed to rifles or rockets which use chemical energy as a propellant. Here, a 0. 3 pound plastic projectile is fired at about 3 kilometers per second (7, 000 miles per hour) to penetrate a 1-inch steel plate (top).