Leifer
Senior Member.
The Spacex Falcon launch on Dec 23rd, 2017 was spectacular, mainly because it happened soon after twilight. The sky was dark, but the rocket's plume was lit by sunlight, high above.
But several NASA skeptics are claiming "It didn't go very high" and "It was flying horizontally not upward" (paraphrased)
The rocket flew North-to-South over the Pacific ocean, and the spent first-stage booster was deployed and ditched off the coast of Baja, Mexico.
Here is the general NOTAM, NOTMAR map area for the booster ocean ditch.... (M1340 Iridium-4 water landing).
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...&ll=31.06553227915776,-119.73669807854498&z=6
Although I understand it (visually in my head), trying to explain "why" the launch seemed to be going "horizontal" is difficult because.... trying to explain overhead perspective on a sphere is complicated in words.
Can someone find a Google Earth trajectory image (track) of the rocket path ?
But several NASA skeptics are claiming "It didn't go very high" and "It was flying horizontally not upward" (paraphrased)
The rocket flew North-to-South over the Pacific ocean, and the spent first-stage booster was deployed and ditched off the coast of Baja, Mexico.
Here is the general NOTAM, NOTMAR map area for the booster ocean ditch.... (M1340 Iridium-4 water landing).
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...&ll=31.06553227915776,-119.73669807854498&z=6
Although I understand it (visually in my head), trying to explain "why" the launch seemed to be going "horizontal" is difficult because.... trying to explain overhead perspective on a sphere is complicated in words.
Can someone find a Google Earth trajectory image (track) of the rocket path ?