Episode Two: The Series Has Landed - S1-E2
Corrected entry: When they launch to the moon, the ship takes off and arrives at the moon in about 1.5 seconds, at about twice the speed of light. As they are still in Earth's atmosphere, the ship would be, as a result, slamming into air molecules at twice the speed of light. Even at 90% the speed of light, something coming into contact with another molecule would fuse that molecule with the object and send out a huge burst of gamma radiation, tearing apart that molecule and filling the air with plasma. If such a takeoff was to happen in real life, the air molecules that the Planet Express Ship contacts would result in a plasma wall so huge that New York would be leveled, and the ship would just be dust.
Correction: As is specified in later episodes the Planet Express spaceship doesn't move anywhere - it bends space around it. Anyone trying to argue the physics of such a procedure is, quite frankly, wasting their time.
Agreed, the episode in question goes into details about the physics required too.
Ssiscool ★