But in order to reach that goal, such programs needed the ability to track the rocket throughout the range, Starr said. Should something go wrong, rocket engineers also wanted to be sure that rockets would land benignly, preferably in an ocean.
It was selected for two reasons: the fact that it is relatively near to the equator compared with other U. An East Coast location was desirable because any rockets leaving Earth's surface and traveling eastward get a boost from the Earth's west-to-east spin. A West Coast location would either send rockets over populated areas or have to contend with launching against the direction of the spin.
And, the rate of spin is at its highest on the equator and slowest at the poles, so the Cape's southern location also gave it a boost, Starr said. So that work is the amount of energy you would need to put something in orbit. But wait. There's more. What if the object is already moving? In this case the initial kinetic energy is not zero. How much kinetic energy would it have? Well, it depends on where it is on the Earth. You know the Earth spins, right?
It's rotational rate is 1rpd revolution per day. Actually, that isn't true. It actually takes the Earth a little bit less time to rotate Sidereal vs. And suppose you are at a location on the Earth like this:. This means that the object at that location would have a speed of:. This changes the amount of work needed to get the thing into orbit since the object will not be starting with zero kinetic energy.
The new work-energy equation will be:. How about some graphs. Here is a plot of the energy needed to put something in low-Earth orbit altitude of about km as a function of latitude.
Oh, actually I will plot the energy per kg of mass to put in orbit. Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees Michael E. Melroy and Scott Kelly. Be sure to save the date for this historic launch and upcoming launch viewing opportunities from the visitor complex! This launch is Boeing's next step toward sending humans to the International Space Station.
Images shown may not represent current operational and safety guidelines. And so the hunt began to find a more suitable place to develop the ever-growing missile launch program. Cape Canaveral Air Force Station CCAFS , a military base utilized by both the Navy and Airforce for defense and strategic operations has played a key role in the development of the space program and missile testing in the United States.
When this area was being looked at as a potential site, the fact that there was already an infrastructure in place, roads specifically, made Cape Canaveral an easy choice to move the launch program to.
Another reason why Cape Canaveral was appealing was the close proximity to the equator, as it lies 28 degrees latitude above. Why is this important? From a fuel efficiency and expense perspective, with the amount of energy needed to launch an object, that 0.
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