Why Does The Space Shuttle Take Off Straight Up, Why Not Like An Airplane?

Question

Would it be possible to take off like a Airplane, was built like a plane but used rocket fuel, how fast would it have to go to take off from the ground

Answer 1

Because its not aerodynamically designed to, the delta backswept wings are not good for flight (and are too small to generate sufficient lift), but are fine for gliding.

Plus the shuttle's mass is too heavy for it to take off directly from the ground like a plane.

Answer 2

Being in orbit requires 2 things:
1- traveling around the earth at 27000 km/h
2- be out of the atmosphere so that aerodynamic drag does not slow you down

The shuttle has to reach both goals. But going at 27000 km/h in the atmosphere is extraordinarily expensive form a fuel point of view, and causes dangerous heating of the airframe (this is exactly the same heating the shuttle goes through when it comes BACK, except that is is much lighter since all the fuel is gone).

To be able to fly at that kind of speed while still in the atmosphere would require larger wings (since the shuttle would be heavier form all the take-off fuel) and would subject the airframe to high stress for a very long period of time.
The best solution is to try and get out of the atmosphere as soon as possible (take off vertically) and accelerate to 27000 km/h mostly in the vacuum.

The only case where taking off horizontally would make sense would be if the rocket/spaceplane did not bring as much oxygen in tanks and rely to oxygen from the air to run some jet engines like scramjets instead of pure rocket engines. This may happen eventually, but research progresses slowly on that front.

Answer 3

My guess is that the most efficient way to get from point 'A' to point 'B' is a straight line. If the shuttle were to take off like an airplane, it's flight path would be longer than necessary.

Also, since flying depends on having enough air flowing under the wings to support the weight of the aircraft you cannot fly into space because there is no air in space.

And that is why they use rocket engines instead of wings, a rocket works in a similar way to a bullet and a gun. Since the mass of the gun is larger than the bullet, the bullet moves away from the gun rather than the gun from the bullet. In similar fashion, the shuttle moves upward, because the force of the gasses leaving the rocket engines is greater than the gravitational pull on the shuttle.

Short answer: It would take more time and energy for the shuttle to take off using a shallower trajectory.

Answer 4

The trick is not to "fly" but to break free of the gravitational pull of the Earth's gravity. To do this you must exert the maximum possible energy in direct opposition to the pull of gravity, which on Earth happens to pull straight down. So you rocket straight up as fast as possible trying to reach escape velocity. This takes a huge amount of energy which equates to a lot of thrust from something. Jet engines do not have enough thrust. Many rocket engines do not have enough thrust. Only the biggest rockets are suitable as lifters for the mass of space packages, space capsules, shuttles, and space ships.

The Space Shuttle does not "fly" like a regular airplane in general. It is a combination heat shield and glider with some steerage rockets and last minute useage control surfaces.
The Shuttle could not, for example, do a touch and go landing at the Cape, and then fly on over to Houston, Texas, to land.
Its entire function is to glide in to a single "one-shot-at-it" landing at a pre-arranged landing spot.

Answer 5

The shuttle needs to get out of Earth's gravity as quickly as possible, because the amount of fuel involved in putting something that big into orbit is enormous, hence the two solid-fuel boosters (the two white ones) and the big red liquid fuel tank.

If it tried to take off like an airplane, it'd never have enough fuel to get into orbit.

Think of it like this. You've got a .45 caliber pistol and two rounds of ammunition. The two rounds of ammunition have the same amount of fuel. You fire one at a 45 degree angle in some direction. It will expend a lot of its energy flying away from you in whatever direction you pointed. For the next round of ammunition, you fire straight up (please don't try this in real life). The round you fired straight up will spend most of its energy fighting gravity to go upwards instead of fighting gravity to go sideways.

The shuttle's the same way. If it goes straight up, it can fight gravity more efficiently than if it tried to go into orbit from some other angle.

Answer 6

It was never built to fly like a jet, only to "dead-stick" glide to a landing site. Fuel to fly around adds too much weight. It glides in for a landing without any fuel, so the astronauts don't get a second chance to get it right.

You need to read up on the "science" of the shuttle. Google it.

Answer 7

A good question. To get into orbit using the minimum amount of fuel, you need to climb at a steep angle as rapidly as possible. Also, the Shuttle carries large amounts of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in fairly fragile tanks. It would collapse under its own weight if it tried to take off horizontally, and it would need a hell of a long runway.

Answer 8

I think because the jet power has to brake through the gravity layer, and on return same thing, it has to rocket back into our atmosphere, then it can fly like a reg jet and land on a runway

Answer 9

It needs the extra fuel tank to break free of the earth's gravity.

Answer 10

very fast, going straight up is the shortest and most fuel efficient way of escpaing our atmosphere.