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I think the benefit of launching horizontaly is overstated. Any airport would still need to handle LOX and hydrogen which could be pretty dangerous. And the a
by 7952 7y ago
I think the benefit of launching horizontaly is overstated. Any airport would still need to handle LOX and hydrogen which could be pretty dangerous. And the airport is not necessarily going to be in the right place for launch.
Also traditional rockets have most of the forces acting vertically. A horizontal launch space plane must also deal with a completely different set of forces.
- imglorp 7y agoOne might argue that a 3km runway is harder to obtain than a single launch pad. Also, I wonder if the traditional safety requirement of an East coast is still necessary: that's an additional constraint on location. Plus the need to be closeish to the equator won't change.
- timthorn 7y agoThe UK is looking at West Coast locations for a new Spaceport.