– 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

No. It was not designed to do that. You know the shuttle stack at launch had those 2 solid rocket boosters and that giant orange external tank? That’s because it needed the propellant from that orange tank and the thrust from the SRBs. The SRBs burnt out and were dropped at an altitude of about 24 miles while the shuttle was at a velocity of 3,000mph. Even if you could get orbiter itself to that altitude and speed, it would still need most of the propellant in that orange external tank. There’s no plane or other vehicle on Earth that could carry the orbiter *and* the attached external tank to 24 miles at 3,000 miles per hour. And for obvious reasons, there’s definitely no way it could have taken off like a plane from a runway.