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Unless you're launching into high-inclination orbits you really don't want to be launching out of Scotland. Anything going to GEO (quite a large percentage of c
by SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago
Unless you're launching into high-inclination orbits you really don't want to be launching out of Scotland. Anything going to GEO (quite a large percentage of commercial satellites) needs to be launched from near the equator.
- mikeash 9y agoGEO launches are more efficient when launched from near the equator, but it's far from "needs." The Russians launch into GEO from Baikonur, for example, which requires at least a 51.6 degree inclination. The latitude of a Scottish spaceport would be a bit higher, but not enormously so. For a less extreme example, there are lots of launches into GEO from Kennedy Space Center, which is at a latitude of 28.5 degrees. The same rocket will be able to put more payload into GEO if launched from a lower latitude, but that doesn't make high latitudes impractical.