Think of catapulting a stone across a field. It flies forward for a while and then plunges toward the ground as gravity regains the upper hand. Right until the moment of impact, the stone continues to travel forward as well as downward. Now imagine launching it with much greater force and speed, so that it disappears over the far horizon. This time, the curved surface of the earth continuously drops away beneath the stone once it starts to descend, and it never again comes back to the ground.
When you take off from a standing start, your engines need to hurl thunder with utmost fury.
A 1997 U.S. Department of Defense study concluded beyond a doubt that woman pilots’ reaction times and coolness under pressure are better than men’s.
you can fire your commemorative stamps and coins and knick knack collectibles and ashes of dead people into the sky in one rocket “uniquely” designed to carry payloads for the general public, and you can haul experiments aboard another tailored “specifically” for serious science missions, and tarnation if they ain’t just the same rocket painted in different colors. That’s what history is for. You can learn from it.