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Something that might not be obvious for people not following space flight closely: this was a launch into a polar orbit from Florida. In the past these would ha
by _Microft 6y ago
Something that might not be obvious for people not following space flight closely: this was a launch into a polar orbit from Florida. In the past these would have launched from Vandenberg airforce base in California because there is a clear path towards the south from there.
So, how is SpaceX doing that now? They are conducting a so-called „dog leg“ maneuver. This trajectory leads the rocket further out to the east over the ocean before it turns south. This is to avoid to fly over land/populated area. This had not been done in decades if I remember correctly.
More stuff: the first Starlink satellites for polar orbits also launched on this flight. As I understand these were the first ones to have inter-satellite laser links too.
(I can’t imagine what an improvement cheap and high bandwidth satellite Internet must be for stations in Antarctica.)
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1353408098342326276 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1353408098342326276
- wmf 6y agoThe landing also looked pretty close to Cuba.
- herodoturtle 6y agoThis was an incredibly insightful comment, thank you. I've been following SpaceX relatively closely; as a South African I've cheered on Elon since his PayPal exit - and so for example I had friends over for dinner on the night of the twin Falcon landing (and more recently the crewed Dragon mission). Please forgive my fanboyism, but now that I've read your points that you've just made, it has shed a whole new (fascinating) light on something I was already passionate about. Incredible times we're living in. Ad astra.
- JshWright 6y agoPolar launches out of Florida are not some special SpaceX magic. It has more to do with the capabilities of the Eastern Range.
- herodoturtle 6y agoYeah, I hear ya. This was not the 0x5F3759DF of rocket science. My friends and I are simply rooting for a fellow South African. Everything SpaceX do is special SpaceX magic to us. And those live-streaming youtubers from the NASA channel are a fun bunch. Their commentary during the static fire tests the other day kept us company whilst we were working - good fun. I guess I'm just easy to please.
- m4rtink 6y agoSure, but the first polar launch from Florida since 1969 happened this August on a Falcon 9, so they do have a role in making this a reality. Did anyone else fly that trajectory actually since August or is it SpaceX only so far ?
- gravypod 6y agoFinally might be a way out of paying the exorbitant data charges, and obscure usage requirements, of Iridium.
- tehbeard 6y ago> This had not been done in decades if I remember correctly. Not in decades at the Cape, perhaps. I can't recall exactly who (maybe India/ISRO?) Do it frequently due to dropping first stages on neighbours being a faux Pas.
- m4rtink 6y agoBack in ~1969 they did drop stages on Cuba IIRC. Other than that no one really drops stages on neighbors - China drops them on their own (evacuated) villages on land and other rockets are often designed the way they are due to the need of not dropping stages on people - Shavit launching westwards or PSLV/GSLV staging in a specific way to avoid dropping stages on some inhabitted islands.
- r618 6y agothis was their _second_ polar orbit mission from Florida first was SAOCOM 1B back in August 2020: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/31/spacex-launches-first-polar-orbit-mission-from-florida-in-decades/ https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/08/31/spacex-launches-first-...
- _Microft 6y agoThanks, that’s right.