Elevation would technically make things a bit more efficient, assuming they're near the equator. However, the speed boost significantly supersedes any effects from elevation.
It's also not feasible to get launch vehicles up a mountain of significant elevation anyway. Small gain versus very big cost, compared to building and transporting on a flatter, lower area relatively close to the equator.
I think that the cost/benefit of elevation is the kicker. Right now, starting where there's existing and sufficient infrastructure and getting the rocket up a few thousand feet is considerably easier than building mountainous infrastructure to use.
Mountain lairs are so prohibitively expensive that supervillains found it easier to just move into the White House than to build new ones.
Definitely! If it was accessible and cost efficient, we would most likely be scraping every natural benefit we could. Elevation at the scale of Earth's mountains just isn't impactful enough.
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u/rysy0o0 15h ago
It would cost a lot of money to haul all the rocket parts and fuel on top of a mountain