– could the space shuttle just fly into space like a plane, rather than being propelled vertically by rockets?
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There are basically two problems: firstly, many airplane engines need oxygen (air) to work, and secondly the speed that is needed to get into an orbit around the Earth is immensely high.
The first of these could be overcome by using a fuel that already has the oxygen inside … which would be a lot like rocket fuel…
Similarly, the second problem could be overcome by using an immensely powerful engine that burns through an immense amount of fuel that would need to be transported by the plane, at least for the first part of the journey. This could be done by adding extra outside tanks that could be ditched once they are no longer needed …
No matter how you try to solve these problems, you will esentially end up with “rockets” by a different name.
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