Monday, May 26, 2003
RUSSIAN ROCKETS IN THE TROPICS
In a general report on the European launch industry, the Beeb mentions something I've been seeing tantalizing hints about for a long time: The possibility of an agreement with the Russians to launch Soyuz vehicles from the ESA's facility at Kourou in French Guiana. This story has been around for a while, which this report from 2001 indicates.
This could be very important in the long run, because of the highly-inclined orbit that the space station is in. It's there because the Russians have to be able to get to it, and their launch site at Baikonor is farther north than any of the other launch facilities on Earth. But having such an inclined orbit for the space station has a cost: The more tilted from the equator an orbit is, the more energy is required to put something in that orbit, since you lose some of the free energy available from the Earth's rotation. As a result, U.S. launches to ISS from Cape Canaveral -- which is about half-way closer to the equator than Baikonor -- are less efficient than they otherwise could be. If Russian work on the ISS could be carried out from Kourou, then maybe the ISS' orbit could be shifted to a more equatorial plane and all concerned could lift more to the station with each launch. The savings would be considerable over the life of the program.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 12:37 PM
