Why do rockets launch in an arc, and not just go straight up?
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Because it is energetically beneficial. If you launch straight up, you have to overcome gravity to avoid falling back down all the time. If you launch up and keep tilting sideways, you’ll still fall back down but eventually be fast enough sideways to miss earth all the time. This is called orbit.
They want to go into a circular orbit, and orbiting Earth means going parallel to its surface obviously, so the rocket needs to turn in an arc. Going straight up will just mean going straight down and crashing once all fuel is spent.
Because in order to get into orbit, you need to be traveling around the planet, and therefore need to be going in an arc 🙂
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