By Tory Bruno 

Many people believe the complexity and difficulty of space launches are relatively equal. Or said more simply, people outside of the space industry think it’s pretty difficult to go to space, period. And while this is true, some space launches, particularly national security and interplanetary (travel between two planets), are considerably more complex than others and require a high level of accuracy, as well as very unique capabilities, especially in the rocket’s upper stage. To understand just how difficult it can be to get to space, it’s helpful to understand the different paths that launch vehicles take to reach the intended destination for their spacecraft. These are known as orbital trajectories.

Read the full article on Tory Bruno's Medium.