Why do rockets launch in an arc, and not just go straight up?
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Going straight up is good to get into space, it’s not good if you want to stay there. If you fire a rocket directly up, what you’re doing isn’t launching it into space, you’re really just firing a missile at yourself, which is probably not what you want.
The difficult part of getting to space isn’t getting high enough–some jet planes can do that, you don’t need a rocket–it’s getting into orbit so that you don’t fall back down when the thrust stops.
Gravity doesn’t just stop once you go high enough. At the height of the International Space Station, gravity is still about 90% as strong as it is on the surface of Earth. What orbit actually means is that you’re moving so fast that the ground is falling away from you as fast as you fall towards it.
Essentially, orbiting is what happens when you aim at the ground and miss.
To do that, you need to go very fast horizontally, not vertically.
But you do still need to go up far enough that the atmosphere is thin and isn’t slowing you down.
And if you want to go very fast vertically and horizontally at the same time, what you get is an arc.
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