alternatehistory.com

Rewatching an old episode of Mythbusters got me to wondering. Let's suppose that someone high up in the Imperial bureaucracy of 15th Century China gets a bee in his bonnet about "touching the stars," or in modern terms, reaching space. Obviously this is impossible with black powder rockets and the materials technology of the time, but if this person has the power and influence to pursue the project to the limit, how well could the "launch vehicles" perform, and what might the spin-off effects be?
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