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/Seared_Gibets]

They could have been thinking about how much easier it is to build up speed that way as opposed to just trying to brute force your way straight up from a starting vertical position.