Time to Think ‘Horizontal’ for Future Space Launches

On Sep 21, 12:46*pm, Doug Freyburger wrote:

It's just like the mountain based rail launcher on the old puppet show
Fireball XL-5! *I liked that show just as much as All Thunderbrids Are
Go.

Of course, this concept has been around for quite a while.

There was the rocket launched from a rail in the movie "When Worlds
Collide" as one example. I think that back in the 1930s, it was taken
for granted that a rocket to be launched into space would need to be
launched from a very long rail.

Burroughs' Venus novels had the premise of a wealthy American building
such a launch rail privately in Mexico or somewhere in Latin America.
The German propaganda film from 1937, Weltraumschiff 1 Startet, also
involved a launch rail. As did the covers of several science-fiction
magazines from the 1930s, if I'm not mistaken.

John Savard