Can planes fly to Antarctica?

Few airlines fly between cities having a great circle route over Antarctica. Hypothetically, flights between South Africa and New Zealand, or between Perth, Australia, and certain destinations in South America (including Buenos Aires and São Paulo), would overfly Antarctica, but no airline has scheduled such flights.

Why do spaceships separate?

Because the amount of fuel it takes to launch a rocket is so high, modern rockets use a staging system. Once a stage has emptied out all its fuel, it detaches and returns to Earth so that the second stage can keep going without having to drag along the extra weight of the empty fuel tanks.

Could spacecrafts be launched from planes instead of rockets?

$\\begingroup$Still, spacecrafts could be launched from a plane where there’s still oxygen, which could burn less rocket fuel. It would cost less and be less risky since there is no vertical launch pad, and the plane used would be reusable, which is not the case with the shuttle, where even rockets are disposed each time (I think)$\\endgroup$

Why can’t rockets fly without air?

Planes need the air for 2 reasons: oxidizer for the fuel they carry to generate thrust and drag on the wings to produce lift. No air, no thrust, no lift, no flying. So obviously, you can only fly so high until you start running out of air. Rockets need to go higher than this and so they are built to do without air.

Why do space shuttles have stubby wings?

The stubby wings of the space shuttle are not meant to make it fly like an airplane. Furthermore, the stubby wings of a space shuttle are not designed to make it lift like an airplane. Instead, they are there for a number of other functions, including facilitating a controlled approach during re-entry and so on.

Do we really need rockets to get to orbit?

So, to get to a stable orbit, you willneed rockets eventually. Areospace types keep looking at hybrids (air breathing, lift generating while down low then switch to rockets as you get really high) because it doesseem like a good idea, but so far the added complexity hasn’t paid.