Is a balloon rocket launch pad possible?

Rockets consume a lot of fuel and carry not eough payload. To reduce the fuel needed, why not send it in the mesosphere?

Imagine a big balloon, capable of carrying a small rocket to the mesosphere (or at least stratopause) where about 99.9% of the air is located under, so basically, its almost a vacuum.

We would drastically reduce air friction: the rocket would be smaller.

How big would the ballon need to be (we could reuse it)?

For 5 tons of payload, how much of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen would we need (as rocket fuel)? How about for 10 tons of payload?

Thank you for your help.

posted over 6 years ago

Mmeyer‭

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