On Feb 20, 5:44*pm, wrote:
On Feb 20, 5:06 pm, wrote:





When launched from White Sands the ground tracks are limited. *One
approach if you launch at the right time of the month, is to do a
direct ascent to lunar transfer with minimal ground track to the
south. *With the rotation of the Earth, and the direction of the moon
in its orbit, you can almost stay over White Sands until you reach
lunar transfer speed.

The problem here is that the returning downrange booster elements will
hit the atmosphere at very high incidence angle, and the heat and
pressure loads will be tremendous. *No glancing loads here - which
means they're pretty much shot! *Except for maybe the first four
stages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_reentry

Stage 1 = 2.0 km/sec terminal velocity
* * * * * * 203.8 km altitude
* * * * * * 407.2 seconds flight time
* * * * * * 144.4 km rotation Eastward during flight.
* * * * * * * 20.3 gees - slowing in last 10 km of atmosphere.

Stage 2 = 4.5 km/sec
* * * * * 1,032.1 km altitude
* * * * * * *917.4 seconds flight time.
* * * * * * * 325.3 km rotation Eastward during flight
* * * * * * * 103.1 gees - slowing in last 10 km of atmosphere

Stage 3 = 7.2 km/sec
* * * * *2,497.5 km altitude
* * * * *1,427.1 seconds flight time
* * * * * * 506.1 km rotation Eastward during flight
* * * * * * 263.9 gees - slowing in last 10 km of atmosphere

Stage 4 = 10.8 km/sec
* * * * * *lunar free return trajectory
* * * * * *9 days
* * * * * *shallow re-entry angle after lunar free return flight
* * * * * * * * 3.0 gees - 0.29 degees entry angle.

He said Mexico not NM- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Right, but I said White Sands, which is in NM. Mexico launch would
likely violate missile proliferation treaties we have in place, so it
wouldn't be possible to export the needed technology. White Sands has
all the infrastructure to do range tests. Of course, Florida has some
space launch capacity, and the State has committed itself to
commercial space launch. Hawaii too has some capacity at Barking
Sands on Kuai.

Launching out of the European Space Agency's complex in South America
is a possibility. Launching near the mouth of the Amazon river is
also a possibility as well, with downrange recovery in Africa, and
Indonesia respectively - for a more normal equatorial orbit.

This vehicle is small enough one could convert a tanker for the launch
platform, and launch in the ocean - and recover at White Sands,
Florida or Barking Sands with aerial tow.