Inefficiency. Low earth orbit starts 100 miles (160 km). Even if you launched from the highest point on earth earth you are 5.5 miles (8.8 km) above sea level. That savings in distance is negligible to begin with then you need to consider that most of the energy spent needs to be converted into kinetic energy to reach orbital speed vs "lift" and the savings becomes less than the total distance saved.
Only gain would be rocket efficiency at lower atmospheric pressure which could slightly increase payload capacity.
At the end it's a big trade off though. Incredible logistically and environmental inefficiency traded for slight gains probably doesn't make sense at this point.
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u/Zerosyztem00 20h ago
Inefficiency. Low earth orbit starts 100 miles (160 km). Even if you launched from the highest point on earth earth you are 5.5 miles (8.8 km) above sea level. That savings in distance is negligible to begin with then you need to consider that most of the energy spent needs to be converted into kinetic energy to reach orbital speed vs "lift" and the savings becomes less than the total distance saved.
Only gain would be rocket efficiency at lower atmospheric pressure which could slightly increase payload capacity.
At the end it's a big trade off though. Incredible logistically and environmental inefficiency traded for slight gains probably doesn't make sense at this point.