– could the space shuttle just fly into space like a plane, rather than being propelled vertically by rockets?

Question

– could the space shuttle just fly into space like a plane, rather than being propelled vertically by rockets?

In: 48

Answer 1

Here’s my best ELI5 which builds off the air gets thinner piece.

Imagine you are at the bottom of a pool and start swimming up. You move upward towards the surface because there is enough stuff (water) for you to push downward on. Then why when you reach the surface, you can’t just keep swimming into the sky? Because although there is stuff (air), there is not enough for you to push down on.

It works similarly for airplanes. They can push down on air, but once there isn’t enough air, even they cannot push down on nothing.

ELI10

Picture sitting on ice with 10 friends all in a line. The 2nd person pushes on the front person. The first person goes forward and the 9 people go backward. The new 2nd person pushes off on the new first person. This person flies forward and the 8 remaining continue backward. Repeat this process until there is one person left. They have moved quite a distance.

This is how the rocket gets out of the atmosphere. It bring the fuel (people) and started exploding it (pushing them) away until it can push itself out of the atmosphere where there isn’t enough air for the plane to get out by itself.