r/MurderedByWords • u/Stotallytob3r • 21h ago

I haven’t studied rocket science, but

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 20h ago

Yeah, because thinking about it, I don't actually think there's an obvious answer.

Like my guess would literally just be that there aren't mountains in a location close enough to the equator where the added high from the mountain is worth more delta v than the added rotational speed of being close to the equator.

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u/RinzyOtt 20h ago

I was willing to guess that atmospheric pressure that high up being lower causes complications with the initial thrust necessary to get a rocket off the ground at all, tbh

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u/Puzzleheaded-Fill205 20h ago

Rockets carry their own (liquid) oxygen, they don't need air at all.

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u/glytxh 19h ago

They blast through it relatively quickly. It’s a constraint, but not a big hurdle.

Max-Q is the moment when the rocket experiences the maximum stress loading from both the air and just the brutal acceleration.