This is all assuming that we don't have a space elevator. tldr; it costs a lot o...

nothrabannosir · on April 13, 2015

No, this is about the speed of the earth relative to the sun. E.g. even if we wanted to shoot, say, the ISS into the sun, it'd be hard. As soon as you point it towards the sun it will go into an elliptical orbit.

gefh · on April 13, 2015

A space elevator takes care of a portion of the earth escape velocity, still leaving >20 km/s left once you get to the top.