Eli5: why do rocket get launched from sea-level and not mountains
In: Engineering
Rocket launches require a lot of infrastructure and equipment. Big facilities, lots of supplies, all this stuff has to be built and transported to the launch site. That would be pretty impractical to do on a mountaintop. Meanwhile, the savings in not having to go one extra mile out of the 62 it takes to get to space is not very significant. So, bottom line, it would cost more in time, expense, and effort to build launch sites on mountaintops and transport fuel and supplies to them than it would save in launch thrust.
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