Why do we have to fly rockets straight up and out of the atmosphere? Why can’t we fly a ship like a plane and just go higher and higher and higher, then rocket booster out past the exosphere. I know the air is thin way up there, so at the highest, tilt upwards and rocket boost
In: Engineering
Getting into orbit is much more about going sideways really fast than it is about just getting up above the atmosphere. Rocket trajectories are designed to minimise distance through the atmosphere so they can then accelerate in a mostly vacuum.
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