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

Question

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

Answer 1

There were two space programs running side by side in the 50’s and 60’s in the US, one used rockets, the other used planes exactly as you described. The rocket program got more early success and so got more funding and that was the one we stuck with.