# @kmphfox26 on YouTube

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://youtube.com/watch?v=uTl9rd5sYwI
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/31253565-kmphfox26-youtube
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/1188b2a54c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-06-04T21:23:50.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** KMPH FOX26 NEWS (@kmphfox26) — https://gondola.cc/kmphfox26

## Caption

Many of us in the San Joaquin Valley have seen the exhaust trail of a rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base near the coast at sunset. 
There's another significant rocket launch site in the U.S., on the East Coast at Cape Canaveral, Florida. That's where they launched both the Saturn V rockets that took astronauts to the Moon in the late 1960's and early 1970's, and the 30 year Space Shuttle program that began shortly thereafter. But why launch from Vandenberg at all? Why not just do all rocket launches from Florida?
 
It has to do with where the rocket is going, which is going to be one of three places. It's either going out to space, or in to one of two kinds of Earth orbit. 

If it's something like a weather or communications satellite, and is going to remain in one spot in the sky for its lifetime, that's called Geosynchronous Orbit. That's a relatively high Earth orbit... around 22,000 miles above the Earth.

Another option is for the satellite to go into Polar Orbit. That's where the satellite travels from the North Pole to the South Pole then back to the North Pole over and over again, while the Earth rotates below it... allowing the satellite to map the entire Earth a few times every day. Since that's a much lower orbit, around 8000 miles above the Earth, the satellite can see the Earth better. That's also the kind of orbit that remote sensing is done from.
 
Most satellites that end up heading into space or Geosynchronous Orbit are launched from Cape Canaveral, because they're launched to the East. If a disaster where to happen and the rocket should blow up shortly after launch, that would happen over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and the falling wreckage would not pose a danger to anyone below. 

Most rockets that are launched from Vandenberg SFB are launched to the South, over the open waters of the Pacific, for the very same reason... to provide safety below, in the event of disaster.

#vandenberg #rocket #launch #california #cawx

## Stats

- **Views:** 2,298
- **Likes:** 10
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 2

## Tags

rocket, launch, vandenberg, california, cawx

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