Nominally I understand why we launch rockets vertically, but intuitively surely it would make sense to launch them at an angle like that for a way more efficient gravity turn, yeah? Am I just dumb? Lol
That would be true if earth did not have an atmosphere. Any gains from the more efficient gravity turn would be lost many times over from atmospheric drag.
Plus, you would have to design your ship to be more structurally sound in order to handle the more extreme temperatures and pressures of going through so much atmosphere
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u/SunriseFlare 1d ago
Nominally I understand why we launch rockets vertically, but intuitively surely it would make sense to launch them at an angle like that for a way more efficient gravity turn, yeah? Am I just dumb? Lol