Russian Rockets to Fly From Equator

[bin.dare]

After more than six years of trying, the Federal Space Agency, or Roskosmos, finally won approval Wednesday from the European Space Agency, or ESA, for launches of a modern version of its industry workhorse from a strategically located French complex in South America.
...

The realization of this project will give Russia the possibility to substantially expand ... the use of the Soyuz rocket launchers in the world market," Roskomos said in a statement.
The two agencies also signed a more general agreement on the joint development of new launch vehicles and reusable rocket engines.

Roskosmos put the cost of the Kourou project, which Russia started negotiating in 1998, at 344 million euros ($447 million.) Most of the money will come from the ESA, while Roskosmos will be responsible for supplying rockets and ground-control infrastructure.
...

The manufacturer of the Soyuz-ST, Samara-based TsSKB-Progress, plans to boost production 50 percent this year as global demand grows. The state-owned company plans to assemble a total of 15 Soyuz launch vehicles, including Soyuz-U and Soyuz-FG modifications this year, up from 10 in 2004.
Roskosmos has worked closely with the ESA for years, launching satellites and carrying astronauts to the International Space Station, a program that accounts for the bulk of TsSKB-Progress' business.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/01/20/046.html

[FormerDittoHead]

1. I wondered how long this would take.

I remember reading about this YEARS AND YEARS ago.

Something about it taking less energy (bigger payloads / smaller rockets / less fuel) to launch from the equator.

Didn't this have something to do with our choosing to launch our rockets from (nearly) the most southern tip of the continental US?

Is that because the earth is moving the fastest toward the equator, or is there another reason?

[eldepeche]

2. It is because the Earth is moving faster at the equator. nt

[Orsino]

3. Yep.

Launching from the Equator takes advantage of the greatest possible boost from the Earth's rotation. The vehicle gets a free 1000 mi/hr toward the 17,000 mi/hr need for orbit. No one is silly enough to try to orbit payloads *against* the Earth's rotation--that would require an even greater speed.

Launching from Cape Canaveral offers less of a boost, and Baikonur even less. Russian launches have previously angled toward the Equator from Baikonur, producing polar orbits that happily offer better satellite coverage for their country (which is less "visible" from equatorial orbits.

If you've seen American missions tracked on what looks like a sine wave on the map, this is a consequence of launching far from the Equator. The first shuttle launch after the Challenger disaster executed a "roll-over" shortly after take-off, to angle the orbit even farther off the plane of the Equator, producing near-polar coverage for what was obviously a spy satellite.

I suspect that the energy saved by launching from the Equator is more than made up for by the labor and expense of shipping to the South American site, but every mile-per-hour saved translates to a lighter vehicle (or bigger proportional payload) that can reach a higher orbit with less fuel.

[don954]

6. what i dont understand is why they didnt put the american

space port in the southern tip of florida insted of the middle of florida, wouldnt they get a bit more of a boost?

[Orsino]

8. Not much more of a boost...

...and the site selection probably had to do with available military facilities, found in only a few Florida locations:

http://www.spaceline.org/capehistory/2a.html

We are also free to assume that pork--at the national and state level--played a part, too.

[daleo]

4. The political dimensions of this are important too.

European and Russian cooperation in matters of this sort must be a bit troubling for Bush/PNAC.

[bin.dare]

5. yes. political/commercial ....

Russia will use only about one third of the rockets made, the rest are commercial. It seems to me that the US is militarizing itself out of the market.

[Radio_free_america]

7. Kourou could be soon a platform for manned space Flight

This commercial transaction began because cuts in ISS budget by Bush.

So ESA and Russians chose to intensify partenership because they said that US space program is far too much tied to diplomatic or politic turn over.
See the shuttle, budget cuts and accident.
At this time only Russians can continu human space flight.

How planify a international projet like Casini, or ISS with a Nation who change his space program every 4 years like Bush did ?
Europeans, Japaneses and Russians don't like too much bulding ISS a US project at the beguining, and pay for it quite alone a few years later.

It's the first reason of soyouz at Kourou spaceport. Second is of course, more payload on the same rocket.