Re:Blue Origin: Images and Videos from Our First Flight
by DavidSJ on Thursday April 30, 2015 @05:48PM
(#9467873)
Yes, but even one quarter the way around the world turns out to be very close to orbital energy, because your delta-distance per delta-v increases rapidly as you increase energy. Nearly all ICBMs are multi-stage rockets for this reason. Vehicles designed for suborbital tourism like Spaceship Two, Lynx, and New Shepard aren't traveling more than a couple hundred km without a second stage.
Math:
Reaching the edge of space requires 100 km altitude, or 1,000,000 m^2/s^2 of specific energy, which is 1,414 m/s velocity. Redirect that to a 45° angle and you have 1,000 m/s in both the vertical and horizontal direction, which comes close to maximizing your distance. That gives you 200 seconds of flight, which puts you 200 km downrange.
Math:
Reaching the edge of space requires 100 km altitude, or 1,000,000 m^2/s^2 of specific energy, which is 1,414 m/s velocity. Redirect that to a 45° angle and you have 1,000 m/s in both the vertical and horizontal direction, which comes close to maximizing your distance. That gives you 200 seconds of flight, which puts you 200 km downrange.