You can (theoretically) reach “space” with a single impulse from earth’s surface, but you cannot achieve earth orbit that way. To make orbit, you need a circularization burn at apogee to raise your perigee above the atmosphere. Otherwise, its ballistic trajectory will cause your spacecraft to re-enter the atmosphere.
In theory, with an impulse hard enough to reach the moons orbital altitude, you could get a slingshot maneuver that leaves your object in a highly elliptical orbit around earth without burning fuel, but it would eventually be unstable from the moons gravitational pull changing it.
You can (theoretically) reach “space” with a single impulse from earth’s surface, but you cannot achieve earth orbit that way. To make orbit, you need a circularization burn at apogee to raise your perigee above the atmosphere. Otherwise, its ballistic trajectory will cause your spacecraft to re-enter the atmosphere.
Yeah, this is just a first stage replacement. You still need a rocket to get most of the way into orbit.
In theory, with an impulse hard enough to reach the moons orbital altitude, you could get a slingshot maneuver that leaves your object in a highly elliptical orbit around earth without burning fuel, but it would eventually be unstable from the moons gravitational pull changing it.