Re: ICBM Question

On Aug 25, 12:02 am, Erik Max Francis <m...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Yeah, googling around it looks like most ICBMs can get to 1200-1300 km
altitude with their standard payloads.  

That's what they *do* get to on a normal ICBM trajectory. For the
altitude they *could* get to, there's a reasonably good rule of thumb
that says that a missile that can deliver a payload mass M to a
maximum range R can lift the same M straight up to an altitude of R/
2. So if an ICBM range is like +- 10,000 km, the maximum attainable
altitude with the same payload mass is ~ 5,000 km (the exact number is
about 90% that).

See Section 8 in http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/space_weapons/the-physics-of-space-security.html
.