3 ms·

Can dragon launch to a polar orbit and safely deorbit from a polar orbit?

• perihelions 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fram2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fram2
  • CableNinja 2y ago
    There was also Polaris Dawn about 6 months ago. They did a highly polar orbit
    • perihelions 2y ago
      I don't want to quibble just to be contrarian. Polaris Dawn was at the International Space Station's inclination, 52°, which is the most common destination for human astronauts. Isn't usually considered a polar orbit. I want rather to clarify a really neat point, about what the other mission's doing. From KSC, you can conventionally only launch to inclinations below 62° [0] (constrained by populated landmasses). To get to a true polar orbit from Florida, that means they have to attempt a curved launch [1]—something that's pretty rare, and (to my knowledge) Falcon itself never tried before. (The parent comment was right to ask whether a polar orbit is possible: it does create interesting challenges). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Space_Center_Launch_Complex_39 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Space_Center_Launch_Co... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogleg_maneuver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogleg_maneuver