User blog comment:David Rain/Steampunk in space/@comment-5018798-20131024181058/@comment-32656-20131025132553

With the small amount of electrical knowledge that would be part of their work, and magnetic forces they'd be able to get from even rare substances, they would not be able to get enough together to launch anything. Not even close.

I figure, use a cannon to launch it. Some kind of improvised maneuvering rockets could probably be used from there to get it into some sort of orbit.