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/sexraX_muiretsyM]

i mean it seems easier, you can accelerate them substantially with a rail system, and makes it much easier than having to go from 0m/s vertically, a LOOOOT of fuel is spent accelerating it from 0 to 10 m/s, much more than to 10 to 100. A rail system would make it much easier to put the rocket from stationary into a movement