(November 30, 2020 at 8:57 am)zebo-the-fat Wrote: You can have an orbit in any direction, but usually they are along the equator because the rocket can gain "free" speed by using the Earths rotation. You can have "retrograde" orbits which orbit the equator in the opposite direction but the launch would need much more fuel, also "polar" orbits which go north/south, used to cover the whole surface of the Earth as it rotates underneath (also used to piss off flat Earthers!)
Yeah - I got the polar orbit part- was on watch when SARSAT went online in 1981 (?) . The techs explained that... I just thought they alway had to travel west to east..... What would be the advantage of one going east to west?
