Railguns have the unfortunate side effect of applying their full acceleration over just the length of their rails, which tend to be relatively short compared to the thickness of the atmosphere.
They’re fun to shoot some bullets at hypersonic speeds, not so much to impart higher than orbital speeds to complex structures when they get pancaked before leaving the muzzle.
That would make some orbital insertions a lot cheaper, too.
Railguns have the unfortunate side effect of applying their full acceleration over just the length of their rails, which tend to be relatively short compared to the thickness of the atmosphere.
They’re fun to shoot some bullets at hypersonic speeds, not so much to impart higher than orbital speeds to complex structures when they get pancaked before leaving the muzzle.