SpaceX #2: Launch Pad Stories
Eric Berger’s book on SpaceX, Liftoff , next talks of the launch pad challenges. Elon Musk’s company got permission from the Air Force base in California to conduct its tests and launches. The good thing was that it was close to their factories. But it was also close to the ocean, which meant the rocket that went so many checks and inspections prior to launch would be lashed with salt carried from the ocean by the winds for long periods. But there was a much bigger problem with the Air Force base in California. To launch a satellite into equatorial orbit, the rocket would need to fly over the US. But flying over land was forbidden by US law (what if the rocket crashed or things went horribly wrong). SpaceX needed to find an eastward facing launchpad. Ideally, the launch site needed to be close to the equator, because then it could “piggyback on the earth’s rotation”, thus reducing fuel needs (and weight). So they picked the Marshall Islands, a set of islands owned ...