why are the noses of rocket, shuttles, planes, missile(…) half spheres instead of spikes?

Question

why are the noses of rocket, shuttles, planes, missile(…) half spheres instead of spikes?

In: 5557

Answer 1

A long thin spike means you have more surface area and more weight and most of it isn’t going to be useful space to put anything in. For subsonic flight a blunter nose is actually better because it has a lot less surface area to create drag than a pointy nose, and it makes the aircraft overall shorter and lighter.

For supersonic flight pointier noses work better.