There's an XKCD blog (?) that explains space launches in an intuitive way, with pictures: https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ Getting sp

There's an XKCD blog (?) that explains space launches in an intuitive way, with pictures: https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ Getting space isn't about getting "really high" (although of course you need to do that too). It's more about going "really fast" (relative to the ground). Like wantoncl mentioned, most of the fuel getting into orbit is spent on building that speed along the ground, not the height into the sky. Think of it this way: space is only 100km away. ("If you're in Sacramento, Seattle, Canberra, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Phnom Penh, Cairo, Beijing, central Japan, central Sri Lanka, or Portland, space is closer than the sea.") You can drive that distance in a car in a moderately short time. The challenge is getting to the speed to stay in space and not fall back to earth. Leaving Earth orbit for other astronomical bodies is another very interesting problem entirely. If you'd like to learn more about this, I'd encourage you to explore the video game Kerbal Space Program which has very accurate orbital mechanics.