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Brexit Britian also has a "new" "$1Bn" "Spaceport" I say "new" because it was an existing, disused, runway. I say "$1Bn" because no one has actually spent tha
by LatteLazy 4y ago
Brexit Britian also has a "new" "$1Bn" "Spaceport"
I say "new" because it was an existing, disused, runway.
I say "$1Bn" because no one has actually spent that, it's just the "value" in the government press release.
I say "spaceport" because it turns out any large open space with some concrete can be a spaceport if you want.
- panick21_ 4y agoA space port is mostly a road to an empty place with some tanks set up. But the real big effort is getting all the regulatory things managed, environmental and 'rockets'.
- credit_guy 4y agoDon't you need some empty space (ocean or desert) downrange, just in case a launch goes bad, as it happened with Challenger ?
- panick21_ 4y agoYeah my empty space included downrange as well.
- Oxidation 4y agoFrance is downrange of Cornwall. It'll be 'raight.
- credit_guy 4y agoExactly. I'm a bit puzzled by that. I thought that was the reason the EU launches happen in the French Guiana, there's the whole Atlantic ocean downrange from it. The same with the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Downrange of Boca Chica, TX there's the whole of the Gulf of Mexico. UK has a lot of overseas territories, can't they find a safer place for a spaceport?
- bostonvaulter2 4y agoI think one of the big benefits of French Guiana is that it is closer to the equator which means that it takes less fuel (aka money) to reach space.
- panick21_ 4y agoUsually space ports can not hit all orbits. Some of them are target only to fly polar orbits, launching north.