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Rockets only go up for a little while; most of the propellant is used to build up speed in the 'horizontal direction'. There have been some arguments that a st
by nickff 11y ago
Rockets only go up for a little while; most of the propellant is used to build up speed in the 'horizontal direction'. There have been some arguments that a strictly vertically-firing rocket would be best for going outside of Earth orbit, but the current strategy for all launches is to go up until outside the thickest part of the atmosphere, then go horizontal, to build up to orbital velocity.
- arprocter 11y agoAfter reading about the end of of Project HARP - it seems like they intended to use the gun to fire a rocket, and after a certain altitude the engine would ignite to get into space.
- nickff 11y agoYes, and in the years since HARP, there have been a few rocket-assisted projectiles developed (though none which have been intended for space launch).[1] I should also mention that unless the projectile was fired at or above escape velocity (intended to leave the Earth's gravity well), it would require some onboard propulsion to 'circularize' its orbit (and avoid crashing back into the Earth on its first time around). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket-assisted_projectile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket-assisted_projectile