What will I need to do before building the rocket silo?

Solution 1:

Here's what happened:

• No, it was not necessary to build a railway to launch the rocket. My copper did run out at one point, so I built a copper mining outpost and hooked it up to my base with conveyor belts. My iron never ran out.

• No, it was not necessary to research or build guns or power armor. I cleared out some nearby bases with laser turrets -- basically, I killed the ones that seemed likely to smell my pollution and attack -- and that was more than sufficient to research the rocket. I didn't get a close look at the aliens because my turrets mostly killed them when they were off screen, but it didn't look like they had evolved significantly.