How does escape velocity change for launches tangent to the surface of the Earth, rather than perpendicular? This is assuming that the object can travel as fast as necessary to do it and is indestructible.
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For a space launch tangent to the surface of the Earth, you’d still only need 11.2 km/s. Having that velocity in any direction gives you enough kinetic energy to make your total mechanical energy zero/positive and send you on a parabolic/hyperbolic escape trajectory.
This neglects what you’d need to have to overcome the atmosphere. Spacecraft usually go up and then turn into orbit specifically to avoid having to go through the thick, viscous atmosphere. Pushing through it at escape velocity for long enough to clear it would certainly destroy any leaving spacecraft, or at least slow it down so fast and so much that it wouldn’t end up leaving the Earth. Accounting for the atmosphere, I would call this impossible: no matter your starting speed, you always start from what is effectively inside the planet.
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