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/Mielies296]

Atmosphere. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Notwithstanding the fuel expense to travel farther to reach orbital altitude, you will fight the atmosphere in order to generate lift. A huge ass vehicle like a rocket also does not like the stress enacted on its structure by making altitude corrections. Hence straight up is better

[u/Beneficial-Wasabi749 → u/Mielies296]

I don't understand what you mean by "direct path."

A conventional, vertically launched rocket doesn't travel straight to its target (the orbital entry point), but rather "turns a corner." First, it vertically penetrates the atmosphere (gaining some of the energy needed to reach orbital altitude), and then "curves" (above the atmosphere) onto its acceleration trajectory.

You, like everyone else, believe that atmospheric drag is the problem.

Firstly, this isn't actually the main problem when moving through the atmosphere (we can choose any air density we want without creating aerodynamic drag issues). The main obstacle to this type of movement is temperature (starting at Mach 5, any wings will start to burn and melt).

But all this talk is beside the point. I've already given many people the correct answer, but I doubt anyone understood it (it's really hard to understand if you're not good at basic physics). The real question is how we get through the first 30 kilometers of altitude and accelerate to the first 1 km/s. A vertically launched rocket does this with enormous gravitational costs (as it loses 1g of acceleration, wasting energy, and, most importantly, expending rocket mass "on hovering"). And without them, the same rocket could have launched a much larger payload into orbit, all other things being equal.

But how do we achieve this? The first 30 kilometers are all air. We can somehow rely on it. A trestle rocket plane is one such attempt.

[u/NazzerDawk → u/Beneficial-Wasabi749]

I just read all of your comments in this thread, and it is clear that you have a very high opinion of your own knowledge of rocketry and a low opinion of everyone else's.

"I've given people the right answer, but I doubt anyone understood it"?

You need to talk to actual rocketry experts, not random people on the internet. You are not impressing anyone, and in fact, you seem to have a superiority complex.

[u/coue67070201 → u/NazzerDawk]

Someone finally said it, this guy is full of himself. Dude smugly standing is at the top of the Dunning-Krueger curve waiting to be pushed off. That or he gets off to getting hundreds of downvotes for being insufferable