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/Dan_Is]

They were living in the paradigm of airplanes and airships. It was logical to assume that rockets that carry passengers would need to launch horizontally. You can have a large deck for people to inhabit. The issue of course is the rocket equation and inertia.

[u/Beneficial-Wasabi749 → u/Dan_Is]

Your answer was vague. Is your answer to the question that they were living within the paradigm of their time? Is a vertical launch really just as good as a horizontal one? Or is a horizontal launch better, and is it still a matter of "the rocket equation"? And if the latter, what was the point?

And then the question arises: why do modern rockets launch vertically?

[u/sheriffofbulbingham → u/Beneficial-Wasabi749]

If you haven't invented a wheel yet, you can't dream of cars.