[degobah]

Since its purpose is to launch rockets, I assume it lands where it takes off, and might never stray far away.

[tyingq]

That's the sort of thing I'm interested in. Like, for example...how far away are you once you get this huge thing high enough to launch.

I'm not trying to criticize it, I'm just curious how dangerous a typical mission will be.

[cmurf]

It doesn't have to fly in one direction, it can do s-turns while climbing, or circle.

I think clearly payload launch is the risky part. What are the kinds of launch failures? Rocket engine failure can be uncontained and spectacular.

[mikeash]

You can make occasional turns to keep close to the airport while climbing higher. I don’t know if that’s what they’ll do, but this problem has some easy solutions at least.

[0xffff2]

> Like, for example...how far away are you once you get this huge thing high enough to launch.

It can climb in a circle so that it's never far from its base.

[not_a_terrorist]

It only reaches 35,000 feet.

[inamberclad]

They're going to move it all over the world (or at least, over the latitude range) in order to get into the most optimal launch position.