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Spaceport America
Stingray
Elite Ranger
in Zocalo v2.0
... was apparently inaugurated yesterday by [URL="http://uk.news.yahoo.com/first-spaceport-giant-leap-branson-045412876.html"]Richard Branson.[/URL] :cool:
[URL="http://www.spaceportamerica.com"]Things are looking up for the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport.[/URL] ;)
[URL="http://www.spaceportamerica.com"]Things are looking up for the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport.[/URL] ;)
Comments
[img]http://www.spaceportamerica.com/images/photoGallery/spa_aerial_blue_tag.jpg[/img]
Jake
Yes. Right up where the Earth's spin gives almost no boost. That's not going to be very economical. Europe's most obvious place for space flights is going to be somewhere in Spain, Italy or Greece. There's a reason ESA launches from French Guiana.
And cut!!
And cut!![/QUOTE]
Oh, I see. They want to be the spaceport set used to film the fake lift off for the fake Mars mission.
You mean apart from Esrange already being used for half a century, and Richard Branson looking to use the site himself?
[url]http://stratocat.com.ar/bases/37e.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.sscspace.com/esrange-space-center-3[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esrange[/url]
Perhaps new rockets or new applications will appear where the Earth's spin is irrelevant, or perhaps regulations compared with other places will give it an advantage, but until then I think that fuel economy and ability to lift a greater mass will triumph over anything else.
This is one of the reasons why Florida was not the best place to chose for NASA, but the fact that Florida has political reasons for being chosen won out over the fact that they have to scrub pretty regularly due to inclement weather. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California are far better locations due to their much drier climate.
As for lift capability, the closer you are to the equator, the easier you will obtain orbit. The earth is spinning, meaning you start with that much speed and only have to add onto it. Further north/south you have to have additional thrust (and thus additional fuel weight, which in turn requires more fuel to achieve the same amount of thrust) in order to equal the difference in initial velocity.
Obviously latitude is not that critical when you are not launching from the ground. It probably matters to some degree but it may be insignificant in the larger picture.
There's also the aspect of orbital inclination. Being at the equator isn't just about gaining a boost from the Earth. The further away a rocket launches from the equator, the more fuel it needs to use to change its orbital inclination to the equatorial plane. If the majority of satellite orbits were in Sweden, this wouldn't be a problem, but they aren't. The majority are equatorial, or not that far from it, relatively. Sweden is a great place to launch from if you're aiming for a polar orbit, but those are much fewer than orbits closer to 0 degrees. This is one reason why air launch systems often cite "We can fly to the equator" as a benefit.