While 250k is peanuts compared to regular costs of rocket research, I feel 1 km/s is not that impressive of a demonstration. Rifles have achieved higher muzzle velocities as far back as 1935 [1], and ground-based systems capable of over 3 km/s have been demonstrated in the '60s and '90s only to meet with little interest [2] [3].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.220_Swift

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_High_Altitude_Research_Pr...