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Reusable NewSpace: Launch Site [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-06-07  

"Home is where one starts from."

– T. S. Eliot

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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ORBITAL INCLINATION

The orbit will be inclined 60 degrees relative to the Equator.

If the launch site is located at a latitude of 60 degrees, then the rocket can launch due east and achieve this inclination. Any other latitude will require the rocket to turn south to intersect the required inclination, resulting in a reduction in payload mass reaching the desired orbital altitude.

Even though the south turn results in a horrendous reduction in payload capability to orbit, it is an acceptable sacrifice since a 60–degree inclination provides a better opportunity for Earth observation for both the tourists and the scientists.

LOCATION3

I rejected all launch site on any coast because they will be useless in a few years due to climate change (sorry Kennedy Space Center!)

Spaceport America (SA), located near White Sands in New Mexico is an excellent choice for launching and recovering spacecraft (Image 1). [Full disclosure: I am a resident of New Mexico]

Image 1: Spaceport America in Google Maps

The primary reason for choosing this spaceport over all the other spaceports on planet Earth is because of the weather and its near–resistance to climate change. SA enjoys an astonishing 340 days per year of conditions good enough for VFR operations. This blueprint calls for 224 flight days every year, which is easily available at SA.

The White Sands facility is situated due east and can be used as an emergency runway. This runway, however, will only be used as a last resort. One of the US Space Shuttle had landed there in 1982 and the technicians could never remove all of the gypsum from the spacecraft.

The spaceport is owned and operated by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA). The location has an elevation of almost 4,600 feet and has a 10,000–foot runway (Table below).

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