{"id":112259,"date":"2020-08-31T14:27:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T21:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/spacex-makes-first-polar-orbit-launch-from-florida-in-decades"},"modified":"2020-08-31T14:27:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T21:27:24","slug":"spacex-makes-first-polar-orbit-launch-from-florida-in-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/spacex-makes-first-polar-orbit-launch-from-florida-in-decades","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX makes first polar orbit launch from Florida in \u2018decades\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P-gLOsDjE3E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While SpaceX didn\u2019t pull off a doubleheader Sunday launch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-launch-doubleheader-starlink-saocom-1b-webcasts.html\" target=\"_blank\">like it planned<\/a>, the company still managed a rare feat. Instead of launching eastward like every other Cape Canaveral rocket, the Falcon 9 headed south toward Cuba, close to populated areas on Florida\u2019s coast (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2020\/8\/30\/21407389\/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-launch-polar-orbit-cape-canaveral-florida\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Verge<\/em><\/a>). The \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/updates\/saocom1b-08-30-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\">SAOCOM 1B<\/a>\u201d mission marks the first such \u201cpolar launch\u201d from Florida since 1969, made possible by a special Air Force exemption for SpaceX.<\/p>\n<p>Satellites bound for polar orbits (where a satellite passes over both the North and South Poles), usually launch from Vandenberg Air Force base in California. That way, they can head due south directly over the ocean without passing over any populated areas. By contrast, flights from Florida always head east over open seas, as southbound flights have been off-limits due to the presence of cities like West Palm Beach below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While SpaceX didn\u2019t pull off a doubleheader Sunday launch like it planned, the company still managed a rare feat. Instead of launching eastward like every other Cape Canaveral rocket, the Falcon 9 headed south toward Cuba, close to populated areas on Florida\u2019s coast (via The Verge). The \u201cSAOCOM 1B\u201d mission marks the first such \u201cpolar [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2028],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}