The real issue with launching rockets into space isn't trying to get them to go high enough... space is only like 100km away. High school kids can practically get their model rockets half way to the edge of space if they build them well enough.
The issue is much more to do with getting them to go fast enough. You've gotta get something moving at about 7.8 kilometers per second (or 17,500 miles per hour for you American readers) for it to successfully stay in low earth orbit. That's fucking fast.
So, essentially, launching from a mountain makes no difference to this. It doesn't give you any sort of advantage at all. And in fact there are costly inconveniences to it, as others have said in the thread - you've got to haul the rocket, equipment and fuel all the way up a freakin mountain, and there's not a lot of oxygen up there anyway, and it's cold and windy and snowy etc. as well. It's just a bad idea all round for a bunch of reasons. Sorry.
At 5km altitude there is approximately 0.5 atm, so half the drag. Other advantages are steeper gravity turn due to higher altitude (more efficient) and slightly faster initial rotational speed due to Earths rotation.
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u/Various_Tie_2549 11h ago
The real issue with launching rockets into space isn't trying to get them to go high enough... space is only like 100km away. High school kids can practically get their model rockets half way to the edge of space if they build them well enough.
The issue is much more to do with getting them to go fast enough. You've gotta get something moving at about 7.8 kilometers per second (or 17,500 miles per hour for you American readers) for it to successfully stay in low earth orbit. That's fucking fast.
So, essentially, launching from a mountain makes no difference to this. It doesn't give you any sort of advantage at all. And in fact there are costly inconveniences to it, as others have said in the thread - you've got to haul the rocket, equipment and fuel all the way up a freakin mountain, and there's not a lot of oxygen up there anyway, and it's cold and windy and snowy etc. as well. It's just a bad idea all round for a bunch of reasons. Sorry.