[BartSimpson]

QBall QBall:

After living on the Island for 10 years I think I can safely say that Islanders hate noise. I can't see the Tofino band council agreeing to this UNLESS THEY GET A BIG BRIBE, nor any other for that matter. Plus it's not exactly an easy trek to get to these locations by car, and it's pretty damn expensive to live there. Not going to happen.

[sandorski]

hurley_108 hurley_108:

Gunnair Gunnair:

Baikonur Cosmodrome is at 45 degrees - Tofino is at 49 degrees.

Not sure how much a difference 4 degrees would make.

Fill the damn spaces with trees!

Soviets probably didn't exactly have safe, unfettered access to more equatorial latitudes, and so didn't have much choice. Canada does so it doesn't make sense to launch rockets from Canada just to prove a point.

The extra "kick" you get from the Earth's rotation falls off as you go farther from the equator as the cosine of the latitude. At 45 degrees it's only 71% (actually the square root of .5) what you get at the equator, at 49 degrees it's 66%. That extra 4 degrees costs 5% of the assistance from the Earth's rotation. Cape Canaveral, at 28 degrees has only lost 12% of that kick.

Sorry, Shep got me in a sciency mood today....

Edit: So yea, plant trees not launch pads.

Yet another reason to Annex the Turks and Caicos!

[SprCForr]

They go batshit over a torpedo range, launching missiles would give them a friggin' embolism.

[Hyack]

hurley_108 hurley_108:

Soviets probably didn't exactly have safe, unfettered access to more equatorial latitudes, and so didn't have much choice. Canada does so it doesn't make sense to launch rockets from Canada just to prove a point.

The extra "kick" you get from the Earth's rotation falls off as you go farther from the equator as the cosine of the latitude. At 45 degrees it's only 71% (actually the square root of .5) what you get at the equator, at 49 degrees it's 66%. That extra 4 degrees costs 5% of the assistance from the Earth's rotation. Cape Canaveral, at 28 degrees has only lost 12% of that kick.

Sorry, Shep got me in a sciency mood today....

Edit: So yea, plant trees not launch pads.

That's all true enough, but why couldn't they use the Vancouver Island site to launch satellites into polar orbits. There is no advantage to be gained or lost when doing a polar launch from there, but I do agree with Gunnair.....replant them with trees.....or pot!!