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(Sorry, I thought I had this posted earlier, but I'm not sure.)
RSA and ESA are building a launch-site for Soyuz-rockets in Kourou. As far as I know for unmanned rockets only, but who knows....
When a Soyuz is launched from this site, where would it land? Soyuz lands on the land, but can eventually land on the water (this has happened once). When a Soyuz flies in a 28degree orbit (Hubble-repair mission?) it could land on the following places, I think:
1. Northern Australia
2. Northern Namibia
3. Oman
4. Mali/Senegal
All other sites are to difficult to trreach by recovery, to dense crowded or belong to nations with political problems. But maybe I've seen something not, maybe some of this sites are problematic as well.
Anybody suggestions?
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So, does this mean we can send up a motor module and push the orbital inclination of the ISS back down to something that makes even the tiniest bit of sense? Of all the compromises that tick me off about the ISS, the worst was how we sabotaged our own cargo capacity, safety of our astronauts and the functionality of the station that we largely paid for by accomodating the Russians by putting the ISS in that stupid 55 degree inclination orbit.
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What about American landing sites? New Mexico?
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If one is launching into a low inclination orbit from Kourou, the landing would have to be near the equator, an area that is mostly ocean or jungle or populated. This is a problem. Maybe with a much better navigational system you could come down in a designated cleared area a few kilometers across; well, 99% of the time.
-- RobS
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An equatorial launch site doesn't necessarily mean an equatorial inclination, however. If the ISS were in a 22 degree inclination (or whatever KSC is at) It's simply a matter of Kourou having their rockets launch off at that angle to rendesvous with ISS. At 22 degrees off the equator, almost no cargo capacity is lost for the ESA and RSA so it would make sense for them to maintain a station at KSC inclination.
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