JRS: In article .com
, dated Sun, 29 May 2005 23:01:44, seen in news:sci.space.tech, Charles
Talleyrand posted :
How does one launch a into a polar orbit from French Guyana? Where
does the first and second stage drop? I understand they are not
bombing New England, but how do they avoid this?

Internet searches are not helping.

Try looking at an Atlas. Kourou Town itself is at near enough 52.5 deg
W, and straight North from there touches, more or less, the outer corner
of Newfoundland, then, after a further distance, West Greenland.

The distance from Kourou to Newfoundland is not much less than that from
Canaveral to Europe/Africa; so either the Newfoundlanders don't have
anything to worry about, but we do.

Subject to adjustment for the position of the launch site with respect
to the town, the exact inclination of the desired orbit, the possibility
of a modest dog-leg, ...

AIUI, the first stage in each case drops much nearer to the launch site
than to anywhere ahead, and any subsequent stages are expected to go
much further and come down in fairly little bits, like STS ET.

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