3 ms·
That savings has to be worth the building of expensive infrastructure at altitude, which is unlikely to happen. Air density at 10k feet yields is only 25% less
by SonicScrub 5y ago
That savings has to be worth the building of expensive infrastructure at altitude, which is unlikely to happen. Air density at 10k feet yields is only 25% less than sea-level, so you're not going to see substantial performance gains. It's much better to focus efforts on choosing a launch location as close to the equator as possible where you can shoot due East (to take advantage of Earth's rotation) without flying over-top of people. This will yield much greater energy savings. There's a good reason why the world's launch locations are where they are.