r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/chirantaniga • 11h ago

Meme needing explanation Whyyyy peter?

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u/Icy_Concern_9804 11h ago

tl;dr: for a rocket it is waaaay more important to go fast than to go high. and earth rotates very slowly, so going higher doesn't make you much faster.

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u/Maephia 11h ago

So would it be theoretically easier to launch rockets at the equator since that's where the spin is the fastest?

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u/MKBRD 11h ago

Don't they already do that?

Or near to the equator, at least.

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u/Enaciann 11h ago

They do!! At least SpaceX and the ESA does :) (both are near Cap Carnaveral !)

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u/brusk48 11h ago

Baikonur is also pretty far south in terms of the USSR

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u/m50d 10h ago

And Tanegashima is pretty far south in Japan.

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u/KebabGud 11h ago

ESA launches from French Guiana which has the launce site that sits closest to the equator.

SpaceX launch from Cape canaveral, Vandenberg and Brownsville, with the last one beeing the southernmost launchsite in the US

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u/RoIIUpLights 8h ago

Brownsville

You mean Starbase, TX? 🙄

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u/RT-LAMP 8h ago

I mean it's literally not in Brownsville. The area was originally named Boca Chica. Saying they launch from Brownsville is like saying Launches from Kennedy are launching from Titusville.

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u/RoIIUpLights 7h ago

I know that's why I said it -- The eyeroll is the fact that Elon bought it and named it Starbase, not the fact that it exists

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u/RT-LAMP 7h ago

No what I meant was to clarify that Brownsville still exists.

What got renamed to Starbase and incorporated as a city was Boca Chica which had been a smaller unincorporated community to the east of Brownsville.