Srilm wrote:
Tiger811 wrote:
I was watching the shuttle blast off and 6 minutes into the flight they were over CR. Want that be nice RIO in 18 minutes.
The Shuttle does not go over CR in launch mode. It must go East until it is in orbit. Anything being launched into orbit takes advantage of the Earth's easterly rotation. That is why launch platforms are as close to the equator as the country they are in permits.
There are a few satellites in polar orbits, but this takes a lot of energy and is done only because there is a specific purpose for it. The shuttle does not have the power to launch south or west.
SR
That's not true, the shuttle could be launched into a polar orbit but those aren't done from Kennedy Space Venter since the launch paths would be over inhabited land. Originally the Air Force was going to launch shuttles from Vandenberg AFB into polar orbits on miltrary missions (Vandenberg is where our polar launches are done since the paths go south over the ocean), but that was dropped due to the costs involved. Plenty of satellites are launched into polar orbits, they're the only ones that cover the entire earth.