Re: SpaceX Falcon Aimed Toward California?

Ed Kyle wrote:
> Jake McGuire wrote:
> >
> > Anything else you'd like to know?
>
>
> Yes. Why do I waste time asking questions
> on this newsgroup?

No idea.

But the distance from Kwajalein to the continental United States is
pretty much the same distance as from Canaveral to Africa, yet no one
cares about possible rocket failures out of there. Of course, by the
time you get your impact point 5000 miles downrange on a LEO launch
you're already at 90% of orbital velocity and aluminum upper stages and
satellites aren't going to survive reentry, or if they do it's
functionally equivalent to nearly-failed launch out of the Cape
dropping stuff on Houston one orbit later.

Of course, on the southerly azimuth most of the second stage flight
will occur over the same uninhabited bit of ocean that it would on a
polar launch out of Vandenberg, so there's really no reason to expect a
preference for either one.

Which leaves your not-so-subtle dig at SpaceX, and gets you an
unserious response.

-jake

.

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