Rocket Lab get to orbit from New Zealand

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39971843

The test flight was the first launch from New Zealand and is a major first step in an emerging market: launching cheap disposable rockets to carry small satellites and other payloads.

The company plans to start frequent commercial launches later this year.

it's a launcher for small sats,

ScumLord

I thought they liked to launch rockets as close to the equator as possible and that it required more energy to get into orbit the further they got from the equator?

Capt'n Midnight

ScumLord wrote: »

I thought they liked to launch rockets as close to the equator as possible and that it required more energy to get into orbit the further they got from the equator?

Yes.

But if you want a different orbit like north - south then it doesn't matter as much ,
for survey and surveillance you could have an orbit where you have , say, sixteen 90 minute orbits per day, and stagger them so that every few days you return to your start point as the earth spins. If you do this exactly then the you get the same angles relative to the sun on repeated orbits, so very easy to compare to previous.


For high orbits yes launching from the equator helps. You get 1000mph extra compared to the Poles. NASA loose 120Mph by launching from Florida.

Junkyard Tom

ScumLord wrote: »

I thought they liked to launch rockets as close to the equator as possible and that it required more energy to get into orbit the further they got from the equator?

That's primarily for ease of getting geostationary payloads into Clarke's Belt which is directly over the equator.