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It's about time we get a launch window before midnight on the East coast.
by MPSimmons 14y ago
It's about time we get a launch window before midnight on the East coast.
- jlgreco 14y agoThe entire concept of an instantaneous launch window is pretty wild.
- TeMPOraL 14y agoCan anyone tell why they're having instantaneous launch windows? AFAIR when NASA was flying Shuttles, the window had a significant size.
- john-n 14y agoIt was discussed during the webcast of the last launch, they said to save fuel. Presumably there's a more technical discussion around it, but that seems to be the gist of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_4-TOcVegM&feature=player_detailpage#t=506s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_4-TOcVegM&feature=playe...
- danielweber 14y agoThe Shuttle probably had similar launch windows for docking with the ISS. You need to match both the speed and position of the ISS to dock with it. The ISS is moving at 7.7 km every second; if you miss by 10 seconds, you would need to (roughly) drop your orbit by 10km, wait 3.6 hours, then climb back up that 10km to make up for it. Matching position is even harder. The ISS isn't equatorial. It swings north and south of the equator in a sinusoid. It's probably possible to have a computer or pilot dynamically respond to all these things to make up for them. But easier to just deal with it by waiting a few days.