2 ms·
Correct. But the question is, if one wants an inclined orbit, why can't you launch out of Kennedy to the northeast or out of Vandenberg to the southwest. Wouldn
by njarboe 8y ago
Correct. But the question is, if one wants an inclined orbit, why can't you launch out of Kennedy to the northeast or out of Vandenberg to the southwest. Wouldn't this save all the delta v correction you need to do after getting into an equatorial or polar orbit and then transitioning to an inclined orbit?
- khuey 8y agoYou can do both of those. NRO missions have launched out of Kennedy to the northeast (e.g. NROL-76) and Vandenberg to the southwest (e.g. NROL-25).
- njarboe 8y agoAccording to bisby at the head of this thread, one of the reasons that SpaceX did not recover the booster is that the rocket had to enter an inclined orbit. Maybe it did launch in the direction for an inclined orbit and used a little extra fuel, like a polar orbit does, due to the fact that you don't have all the speed of the spinning earth adding to your orbital velocity. I didn't know that the spinning Earth speed was a significant factor on payload to orbit of rockets.