this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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[โ€“] miz@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the fuel needed to get to Mach 1 on Earth is a pretty small fraction of the fuel needed to get to orbit.

how does that square with

The platform would accelerate rockets to speeds above Mach 1 as rockets burn most fuel at the beginning of a flight,

[โ€“] someone@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's absolutely true that most rockets' fuel is burned early. But it all comes back to cost and design simplicity. Stretching fuel tanks in a rocket design upgrade is comparatively simple, compared to the eye-watering cost of building a maglev track that can handle a heavy-lift rocket and the nuclear reactors that would be needed to power it.

Also, mach 1 is pretty slow for a rocket. Most rockets reach that in about a minute after launch. Objects in low earth orbit (like the ISS) are travelling at the equivalent of sea-level mach 28.