3

I've seen varying times for spacecraft/rockets getting into LEO, e.g. according do the Mercury-Atlas 7 Wikipedia article, it took just over 5 minutes to get into a 259x154km orbit, whereas the Saturn V article says that it took a "typical" Saturn V launch nearly 12 minutes to get into orbit.

pericynthion
  • 10,086
  • 1
  • 43
  • 59
Tom
  • 31
  • 2
  • 2
    Around 10 minutes depending on the type of rocket, its load (manned flights tend to be slower to limit acceleration to survivable values) and the intended orbit, 5 min is extremely fast. – Hobbes Nov 24 '16 at 13:49
  • 1
    Hobbes is correct; 10-12 minutes is a typical time to orbit. Mercury-Atlas was an outlier as a result of its ICBM heritage; some modern launchers (e.g Ariane) use a very fuel-efficient, low-thrust upper stage which leads to a longer time to orbital insertion, up to 15-20 minutes. – Russell Borogove Nov 25 '16 at 02:25

0 Answers0