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Don't you need some empty space (ocean or desert) downrange, just in case a launch goes bad, as it happened with Challenger ?
by credit_guy 4y ago
Don'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.