How do rocket launches work?
Reaching orbit is not about going up — it's about going sideways at 28,000 km/h. A rocket spends its ~8-minute flight tipping over into a horizontal sprint; altitude is just the means of escaping the atmosphere's drag while it accelerates.
Why launches have exact windows
When a mission must meet something already in orbit — the ISS, or a specific orbital plane for a constellation — the pad must physically rotate (with the Earth) under that orbit. That happens at an exact time: an 'instantaneous window'. Miss it by a second and you wait for the next alignment, which is why countdowns to the ISS cannot be paused.
Scrubs, holds and slips
A 'scrub' is a cancelled attempt — weather, a sensor reading, a boat in the exclusion zone. Roughly a third of first attempts scrub. This is why Cosmik's launch alerts include automatic scrub and delay notices: the T-0 you saw yesterday is often not today's T-0.
From T-0 to orbit in 8 minutes
Liftoff thrust exceeds the rocket's weight by 20–50%. Max-Q — peak aerodynamic stress — comes ~1 minute in. Stage separation follows at ~2.5 minutes, when the booster (on a Falcon 9) turns around to land. Orbit arrives about 8 minutes after launch; deployment of the payload can follow minutes or hours later. Watch it all on the live launch schedule.
Frequently asked questions
Why do rockets launch east?
Free speed: Earth rotates eastward at up to 1,670 km/h at the equator, and launching with the spin means less fuel for the same orbit. It's also why launch sites hug eastern coastlines — spent stages fall over ocean.
What is a launch window?
The time slot when a rocket can lift off and still reach its target — for a space-station rendezvous it can be a single instant; for an interplanetary mission, a few weeks every couple of years. Miss it, and orbital mechanics says wait.
How many rockets launch per year?
More than ever in history — well over 200 orbital launches a year and climbing, driven mostly by reusable rockets and constellation building. Cosmik lists every one with live countdowns.
Keep exploring
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