Posted on 06/02/2005 5:18:06 PM PDT by KevinDavis
The road to space for a Canadian spaceship is a bit shorter now that its rocketeer team has found a suitable launch site.
The Ontario-based firm PLANETSPACE/Canadian Arrow announced today that it has chosen a military base near Cape Rich, just off Georgian Bay, as the proving ground for its manned suborbital spacecraft.
Located on the Canadian Forces Meaford Range and Testing Area, the site will host engine test fires, escape system shakedowns and ultimately the first flights for the Canadian Arrow launch vehicle, project officials told SPACE.com.
“It’s about 70 square kilometers (44 square miles), so it’s a huge area,” said Canadian Arrow leader Geoff Sheerin of the test site. “There’s a potential that we could fly there a long time into the future.”
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I thought the launch sites were generally as equatorial as possible for technical reasons I can not at this moment recall. No offense to the Canadians, but they're awfully northern for that.
Why would you launch a spacecraft so far from the equator?
I don't know...
17,500 miles per hour is needed to get to space. The rotation of the Earth at the equator adds about 1000 miles an hour to any launch going east. the higher up you go in latitude, the less angular momentum (spin) that you can take advantage of. From Canada, the angular momentum help would be less than 100 miles an hour
Ten miles radius will not seem so hugh when they get one of those uncontrolled descents.
This is a suborbital craft, it goes straight up and straight down, the rotation of the Earth is irrelevant to it's trajectory.
"17,500 miles per hour"
Hey hoser, it's Canada eh....give it to us in kilometers per hour
Sorry, eh? I guess I owe you a Molsen, eh?
Make that 28,164 kilometers per hour.
Eh?
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