Why do spaceships go sideways?

The fuel that the rocket consequently saves can be used to accelerate it horizontally, in order to attain a high speed, and more easily enter the orbit. In a nutshell, a rocket must curve its trajectory post-launch, if it wants to enter the Earth’s orbit.

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What would happen if a rocket just flew straight up?

A: If a rocket just flew straight up, then it would fall right back down to Earth when it ran out of fuel! Rockets have to tilt to the side as they travel into the sky in order to reach orbit, or a circular path of motion around the Earth. This steering technique is known as a gravity turn, which uses Earth’s gravity to help conserve rocket fuel…

Why do space shuttles have to curve around Earth?

Everything (not only space shuttles) that goes into the Earth orbit must curve its path on the way up. If a vehicle went straight up and did not achieve escape velocity, it would fall back to Earth after the fuel runs out.

How fast does a space shuttle travel downrange?

By about 50 seconds, it is twice as far horizontally downrange as it is above the surface in altitude. You can listen to the audio in this shuttle launch from NASA TV. As others have said, this is because anything in low Earth orbit must accelerate to around 18,000 mph horizontally in order to stay in orbit.

Why must a rocket curve its trajectory post-launch?

In a nutshell, a rocket must curve its trajectory post-launch, if it wants to enter the Earth’s orbit. If it didn’t do that and continued to go straight up, it would eventually reach a point where its fuel would run out and, most likely, it would end up plummeting back to Earth like a stone.