Wow, another Crew Dragon mission! The launch manifest is getting busy!
I wonder what trajectory they'll take out of Florida? Would a dogleg maneuver be required to hit a polar orbit from the east coast?
this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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They'd kind of have to. Going straight north would be an overland path that passes a few thousand kilometer of USA. Going straight south means going over Cuba.
Iridium (and presumably other polar sattelites) launch into a high inclination orbit, and adjust to a polar orbit once they're up there.
F9 with Crew Dragon on top should have plenty of headroom for a dogleg, the dragon module is a relatively light payload.
They are definitely not giving a f^&* over radiation belts. Polaris dawn and now this one. But we need know orbit details to be sure.
A low orbit won't spend much time outside the belts, and they're not spending months in orbit.
They ran the calculations and while it’s not great, a few orbits is a very manageable risk. Wouldn’t want to be in a permanent space station up there though.
It's cool to see private missions that expand Dragon's capabilities and push out a little bit further. Some more than others, but Inspiration4, Polaris Dawn, Fram2, and Vast-1 all have cool new milestones.
I read the article and its low on why? Whats the point of this exactly? What makes it news? I mean is a different path to be different?
Good point! Truth is, it is basically space tourism. Now, because of the demand for science by humans in orbit, there will be science done and data gathered on the trip, but that isn't really its purpose. That being said, this kind of orbit brings some very interesting challenges re launch, radiation, and recovery, but I'm sure SpaceX can easily manage that.
On the tourism side, the orbit is actually quite noteworthy. We'll have to see what the actual figures are, but even at 450km, you're really quite close to the planet. As such, the sights they will see due to high inclination especially over the poles will be unlike anything any human has seen before, and that's exciting to me :)
Not it!
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