Another way to get to space "without" rocket fuel

One of the biggest problems in getting to space is rocket fuel. We need a lot of it. It's expensive. Mainly because we need a lot of fuel to lift more fuel to lift whatever we're lifting from the stratosphere into space. When I was growing up, this was going to be solved by the "space plane." It was a shuttle that took off like a plane and entered orbit by simply flying above the atmosphere. I'm not sure what happened to this wonderful late 1980s dream. The new dream is the space elevator, but I'm going to float a different idea here.

What's interesting about this "rocket thing" is the original explanation of overcoming the earth orbit by Newton was an arrow or missile shot at incredible speed in a line closer to parallel with the ground (perhaps 30 degrees). Newton theorized that the pure speed of an object could take it into orbit. This got me thinking, what's an effective way to launch a missile? Like in the old sense, the really old sense.

10,000 year old, bent atlatl dart

Well, that would be the atlatl. A lever system used to launch a dart at game during the Ice Age. So, what is stopping us from just making a very large atlatl? It can't be that expensive compared to what we're paying now to get stuff into space. But wait, there's more...

Elon Musk wants to use some sort of tube technology to get people from New York City to Los Angeles in 45 minutes. This technology, I assume can be used as a sort of rail gun. So, not only do we have a physical launch mechanism, we can have a electrical launch mechanism. We can set the launch of the rocket on the end of the giant atlatl and on this railgun track in that ideal(?) 30 degree ideal launch trajectory (the one that gives maximum distance to an object thrown). Essentially it would be a glorified roller coaster where the track just ends at the apex.

So we have a giant atlatl and a rail gun working in sync with each other. We need to power this somehow, so let's throw in a nuclear reactor, because that just makes sense. Throw in some steampunk technology to power the atlatl and creative electrical engineering to charge the railgun, not simple, but there are smart people that can figure that out.

Basically, this launch engine reduces the amount of fuel that needs to be held on the rocket for launch. It is also a reusable launch system, which doesn't get dumped in the Indian Ocean.

Follow up Note (09/03/2013): This process would probably use so much initial force that it would seriously rearrange the contents of the craft being launched: Enough G force to kill most living things.