you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 9 points 19 hours ago (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

    Realistically, it's technically sideways. To reach orbit you need to go sideways, not up. Theoretically you could escape Earth's gravity influence by going straight away from it, but it's not the realistic way that works.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 15 hours ago (1 child)

    Actually, you go up. Then the earth rotates beneath you, turning your up into sideways.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 3 points 10 hours ago

    Technically a spiral because you start with orbital momentum just from standing still on the surface of earth when starting. You'd have to intentionally offset that to go straight but that's not the most efficient way

  • source
  • parent