As early as March 2020, SpaceX may be launching
one of their rockets and doing something that
nobody has done in the last almost 60 years.
Let's talk about what that is.
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Now SpaceX launches a lot of Falcon 9 rockets
throughout the year, but one in particular
coming up is the SAOCOM-1B mission which is
slated for no earlier than March 30th of 2020.
Now SAOCOM-1B itself is not really anything
out of the ordinary for SpaceX, they launch
a ton of satellites for providers like this.
This one in particular is a radar based Earth
observation satellite that will be going into
a polar orbit.
Essentially meaning that it's going to be
orbiting over the North and South poles, perpendicular
to the equator.
Now the satellite is pretty lightweight so
the Falcon 9 booster, presumably a reused
one, is going to perform a Return to Launch
Site landing, which is relatively rare these
days, but it's still not the unusual thing
about this launch.
The unusual bit is that SpaceX is going to
be launching this polar orbiting satellite
from Cape Canaveral, FL and not Vandenberg
Air Force Base on the west coast which is
where they usually launch polar orbiting satellites
from.
Now maybe you're fully aware of this, but
for those that maybe haven't noticed this in the
past, Vandenberg Air Force Base is typically
where these launch providers launch their
polar orbiting satellites from because they
can launch south without having to pass over
land for a long time, but to really understand
why Vandenberg Air Force Base is the go-to
for launching polar orbiting satellites, we
have to rewind back to the 1960's when we
used to launch polar orbiting satellites from
Cape Canaveral.
It's really kind of a crazy story, because
back in the 1960's there was a crazy chain
of events that caused something that became
known as the Herd Shot Around the World.
No, that's not the shot heard around the world,
it is the Herd Shot Around the World.
Now what the refers to is that back in November
1960, there was a launch of a Thor Able-Star
rocket that was intended to launch a routine
covert military satellite into a polar orbit
from Cape Canaveral, FL.
That booster had a premature shutdown which
caused it to get off of it's planned trajectory.
The range safety officer then initiated the
rocket's self-destruct mechanism causing the
rocket to break up into a million pieces,
but after the rocket was torn up from those
explosives, some 400 miles downrange, an unlucky
cow was killed by raining rocket debris.
Now this might seem like an absurd reason
to stop all polar orbiting satellite launches
from Cape Canaveral, FL, but that cow was
in Cuba and this was at the height of Cold
War tensions.
In fact, official Cuban government publications
announced this as a Yankee Provocation and
said that this was further proof that the
US was trying to take down the government
of Fidel Castro.
There were even Cubans that paraded a cow
in front of the US Embassy with a sign on
it that said "Eisenhower, you murdered one
of my sisters."
So tensions from this event were pretty high.
Fidel Castro even filed an official complaint
with the United Nations about this particular
event and the United States was forced to
admit that maybe some rocket debris might
have landed in Cuba.
So with all the commotion that was generated
from this event, all polar orbiting satellite
launches from Cape Canaveral, FL were indefinitely
postponed while they could work on additional
range safety measures and that postponement
was really never withdrawn and so Vandenberg
Air Force Base on the west coast became the
go-to for launching polar orbiting satellites.
It wasn't until over 50 years later that the
45th Space Wing started getting analysts to
determine whether they could return polar
orbiting satellites back to Cape Canaveral,
FL and those analysts determined that there
were really no technical reasons why they
couldn't launch polar orbiting satellites
from Cape Canaveral, FL, but they did recommend
that any polar orbiting satellites launched
from Cape Canaveral, should have an Automated
Flight Termination System or AFTS.
Now the main reason for that is that if the
rocket gets far enough downrange, radio communication
from tracking stations back in the United
States might have a hard time getting to the
rocket so having an automated system right
on board the rocket was beneficial to making
sure that population and animals were safe.
Now SpaceX is the only launch provider that
currently has an Automated Flight Termination
System so really they're the only ones that
can launch polar orbiting satellites from
Cape Canaveral, FL
The way it looks right now, SAOCOM-1B is going
to be the first time we've launched a polar
orbiting satellite from Cape Canaveral, FL
since the 1960's.
Where this really becomes exciting, particularly
for SpaceX, is that their launch infrastructure
at Cape Canaveral, FL is much more robust
than it is at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Take Falcon Heavy for example, right now Vandenberg
Air Force Base is not capable of launching
Falcon Heavy, because the launch pad is not
outfitted for a Falcon Heavy vehicle, but
if a satellite manufacturer or maybe the US
Government wanted to launch a polar orbiting
satellite on board a Falcon Heavy rocket,
they could do that if polar orbiting satellites
were allowed from Cape Canaveral, FL.
So what do you guys think about this?
Are excited about the prospect of polar orbiting
satellites heading back to Cape Canaveral,
FL or should we just stick to Vandenberg Air
Force Base?
As always, thanks for watching this video.
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and I'll see you guys on the next video.
Goodbye.
