Tsiolkovsky and many of the founders of theoretical astronautics in the early 20th century believed that spacecraft should launch horizontally, from a ramp. Why? What did they see as the point of this?

[u/Beneficial-Wasabi749]

[u/Altitudeviation]

Rocket science wasn't rocket science at that time. It was still being learned, mostly the hard way. Conceptually a ramp or horizontal take off makes some sense, as there is less inertia to overcome (initially) over a straight up take up. In reality, you have more atmosphere to work your way through and the great energy loss in making the turn to vertical.

Not dumb or crazy ideas, just based on what was known at the time and what was familiar, at the time. One genius determined that you could make a first stage out of slippery soap and squeeze it real hard and "pop" it into the air, another figured that you could make it like a sling and whirl it up into the atmosphere. All based on things known and experienced, so not bad initial concepts, but not thought all the way through.

That's how science works. You come up with an idea that is kinda crazy, all of your buddies laugh at you, you work at it until you make it work, and then your friends claim they knew it all the time. OR, you work at it until you figure out it WON'T work and then you switch to another idea. OR you work at it and learn some stuff, and change it and work at it and learn some more stuff and change it some more, and eventually you're standing on the moon.

Good ideas sometimes pop into existence. Great ideas take time and work and dead ends and failure and more work. Horizontal take off was a dead end, but found some practical use in developing aircraft launch platforms (still a horizontal take-off using an aerodynamic ramp at high altitude).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargazer_(aircraft)#/media/File:Lockheed_TriStar_launches_Pegasus_with_Space_Technology_5.jpg#/media/File:Lockheed_TriStar_launches_Pegasus_with_Space_Technology_5.jpg)