http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/st ... h-pad.html

Is it just me, or does this take the crown of the stupidest project ever from the Heavy water plant that they had in CB.

There was talk about this last year (or earlier then that) and I remember thinking the same thing but the article I read it from made some interesting points.

I think the main one was that the International Space Center is in a geosynchronous orbit close to Nova Scotia so the distance needed to travel there would be shortest from somewhere around here.

I would have thought the sling-shot effect they get from launching near the equator (ie. Cape Canaveral) would offset most of this but I guess not.

The ISS is NOT in any sort of geosynchonous orbit. It has a set orbit altitude and orbital plane but no, it is not stationary over Cape Canaveral. I've seen the ISS as a bright "star" many times as it flies over. Through my telescope I can see it's solar panels and the modules. Very cool.

A basic reason why NASA likes the eastern seaboard is because it regularly launches it's rockets/shuttles in a trajectory that allows them in get into the ISS's orbit quicker and that the eastern seaboard has emergency landing sites, of which Newfoundland is one. The launch trajectory then takes them to Spain, another emergency site.

Good to see rocket scientists have some intelligence.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/st ... -nasa.html

Ahh politicians

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/st ... pport.html

but yet there's this

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/st ... imary.html
and this
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/st ... owded.html