What Goes Up Must Look Down: A Tour of Launch Sites from Planet’s Satellites
There are only a few dozen sites on Earth that are optimal for rocket launches, and they’re either extremely remote, on the edge of an ocean, or both. There are several good reasons for this, which are all a side effect of the speeds needed to reach orbit — about 28,000 kilometers (17,500 miles) per hour to get Planet’s satellites into orbit 500 kilometers (310 miles) above the Earth’s surface. (That’s 80 times the top speed of a Formula 1 car!)
Reason One: A rocket launch is dangerous. To get off the ground and into orbit it takes a lot of fuel, and if that fuel goes BOOM (suddenly and unexpectedly), the fuel and assorted bits of rocket, rocket engine, and satellite can be scattered over a shockingly large area — especially if the explosion happens after the rocket gains some altitude.
Reason Two: So much fuel is needed to reach orbit that it’s necessary to use multiple stages — dropping the extra mass of spent engines and empty fuel tanks along the way. Since it’s better not to do this on top of someone’s house (or worse yet, have another country find a somewhat intact rocket and steal the technology), all the territory underneath the rocket’s flight path should also be largely desolate or over an ocean.
Reason Three: A rocket launch is incredibly loud and disruptive — up to 200 decibels. That’s loud enough to damage nearby buildings, which need to be specially engineered to withstand the rumbling.
With that in mind, from Inner Mongolia to the Outback to Siberia to South America, Planet is pleased to take you on a tour of some of the special, middle-of-nowhere and/or beachfront properties that help to make space exploration possible.
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Now you see it, now you don’t — a Soyuz rocket carrying 48 Planet Doves and assorted other cargo departed Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 14, 2017 at 12:36:49 p.m. Kazakh time. Planet’s SkySats captured the pad immediately before (left) and after (right) the launch.
Baikonur was the site of many firsts in the space race, like the first artificial satellite (Sputnik-1), the first human in space (Yuri Gagarin), the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova); and it continues to launch both satellites and humans into orbit — including the RapidEye constellation aboard a Dnepr (more on that unique rocket later) and a SkySat aboard another Soyuz.
Vostochny Cosmodrome, Amur Oblast, Russia
Located deep in the Siberian taiga (boreal forest), Vostochny Cosmodrome is Russia’s newest launch site. The site has hosted five launches so far, including lifting 12 SuperDoves into orbit on December 27, 2018. This SkySat image was collected on August 2, 2019.
Yasny Launch Base, Orenburg Oblast, Russia
Yasny Launch Base is one of the more unusual sites for an orbital rocket launch. Instead of the typical expanse of concrete with a multi-story tower, Yasny’s “launch pads” are underground silos, scattered across the Russian Steppe. Payloads are carried into orbit onboard the Dnepr rocket, a converted Cold War era ICBM. SkyBox Imaging (now part of Planet) launched their first SkySat from Yasny in 2013, and 11 Doves followed in 2014. This image was acquired by SkySat on August 5, 2019.
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu Province, China
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is China’s oldest and busiest launch site, and home to the Chinese crewed spaceflight program. Six crewed launches have occurred so far, with more scheduled to start in 2020. This SkySat image was acquired on August 31, 2019.
Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, Shanxi Province, China
Many of China’s meteorological and Earth observation satellites have rocketed into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. A Planet SkySat acquired this image on June 25, 2019.
Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan, China
Located in southern China, Xichang Satellite Launch Center provides access to geostationary orbit. It was also the launch site for Chang’e-4, the first mission to land on the far side of the Moon. This image was collected by SkySat on August 11, 2019.
Imam Khomeini Space Center, Semnan, Iran
Four satellites have successfully reached orbit from Iran’s Imam Khomeini Space Center, all carried by a Safir rocket. The Safir embarks from the smaller of the two launch pads at the facility. The pad is currently being repaired in the aftermath of an August 2019 accident. A Planet SkySat acquired this image on October 2, 2019.
Woomera Launch Area 5, South Australia, Australia
In the 1960s Australia’s Woomera Rocket Range hosted hundreds of rocket launches, including a pair of successful orbital launches — Australia’s own WRESAT in 1967, and the British Prospero in 1971. This image, collected by a SkySat on September 30, 2019, shows Launch Area 5B, site of the launch of Prospero aboard a Black Knight rocket.
The Woomera Range’s large empty spaces make it an ideal landing site, and Japan’s Hyabusa-2 mission is scheduled to return two samples of an asteroid there in 2020.
Tanegashima Space Center, Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
Described by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) as “the most beautiful rocket-launch complex in the world,” Tanegashima Space Center is located on an island off the southern tip of Kyushu. This southerly location is advantageous for placing satellites into geostationary orbit, other low-inclination orbits, and into the ecliptic (the orbital plane of Earth around the Sun) for missions to Venus (Akatsuki) and near-Earth asteroids (Hayabusa 2). An H-IIB carried 14 Doves to the International Space Station in 2015. This image was acquired by a SkySat on September 2, 2019.
Uchinoura Space Center, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan
The Uchinoura Space Center is the site of Japan’s first satellite launch, where the Ohsumi rocketed into space in 1970. The space center currently focuses on the launch of sounding rockets and small scientific payloads. This SkySat image was collected on September 29, 2019.
Guiana Space Center, French Guiana
Europe’s primary launch site isn’t in Europe at all, but South America. Guiana Space Center is located on the coast of French Guiana, only five degrees north of the Equator. This makes it an ideal site for launches into geostationary orbit.
This SkySat image, collected on August 31, 2019, shows the center’s Ariane 5 (upper right) and Vega (lower left) launch pads. Four SkySats launched aboard a Vega in 2016, and another flock of Doves are scheduled to launch on a Vega in 2020.
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand
Up-and-coming small launch provider Rocket Lab launches the Electron from the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand’s North Island. They’ve launched 40 satellites into orbit so far, including a solitary Dove. This SkySat image was collected on December 17, 2018.
Pacific Spaceport Complex, Kodiak Island, Alaska, USA
Located on Kodiak Island near the Gulf of Alaska, the Pacific Spaceport Complex has hosted missile tests and a handful of orbital launches since it opened in 1998. This SkySat image was acquired on August 11, 2019.
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Andhra Pradesh, India
Launch services for India’s rapidly-growing space program are centered at Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The site, on an island off India’s East Coast, hosts two types of rocket: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The PSLV has lofted Planet satellites on multiple occasions, including the record-setting launch of 88 Doves (along with 16 other satellites) on February 15, 2017. A SkySat acquired this image of one of Satish Dhawan’s launch pads on August 19, 2019.
Naro Space Center, South Jeolla Province, South Korea
Only a single satellite has reached orbit from Naro Space Center, and it did so aboard a rocket using Russian components. However, Naro is currently the site of test launches for the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 (KSLV-2), produced entirely within South Korea and expected to be operational in 2021. SkySat image collected on October 10, 2019.
Sohae Satellite Launching Station, North Pyonyang, North Korea
North Korea’s Sohae facility was home to a handful of satellite launch attempts, of which only two reached orbit and only one satellite (Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4) appears to have operated correctly. The North Korean regime claimed to dismantle the site in the summer of 2018, but imagery collected in spring 2019 suggests the site has been at least partially repaired. This SkySat image was acquired on May 2, 2019.
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, United States
Despite being relatively obscure, Wallops Flight Facility has hosted orbital launches since 1961’s Explorer 9, and even sent LADEE into orbit around the moon in 2013. Wallops currently hosts resupply missions to the International Space Station via the Antares rocket, which has successfully carried Doves on three separate occasions. SkySat image acquired on August 1, 2019.
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, United States
Vandenberg Air Force Base hosts U.S. civilian, military, and commercial launches into polar orbit. In addition to being the launch site for many of NASA’s flagship Earth observation satellites — Terra, Aqua, Aura, Landsat, etc. — Vandenberg is the newest member of the interplanetary club. NASA’s InSight Mission left for Mars from Launch Complex 3 on May 5, 2018.
These images show preparations at Vandenberg’s Launch Complex 576 on October 21, 2017, before six SkySats and four Doves rode into space aboard an Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems) Minotaur C (a repurposed Peacekeeper missile) on Halloween.
Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States
Above is a Planet Dove image of the launch pads of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, collected on March 28, 2019.
Kennedy Space Center, along with the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, is large enough and important enough to be worth not one, but two pictures. Between them, the facilities launched more than a few notable missions:
- America’s first crewed flight (Alan Shepard in 1961)
- First launch to another planet (Mariner 2 flyby of Venus)
- Every Apollo mission to the moon (1968–1972)
- Every mission to the outer planets (Pioneer 10 & 11, Voyager 1 & 2, Galileo, Cassini-Huygens, Juno, and New Horizons (and Pluto was still a planet when the probe launched on January 19, 2006))
- The only human artifacts that have ever traveled into interstellar space (the aforementioned Voyagers 1 & 2)
- All 135 Space Shuttle flights (NASA scrapped a planned launch site at Vandenberg after the Challenger disaster)
- 48 Doves into orbit via the International Space Station, on four separate launches
- First launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, with a midnight-cherry Tesla roadster aboard
Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, United States
Above is a Planet SkySat image of Launch Complex 39A collected on August 9, 2019. LC39A was the site of the Apollo 11 launch, which carried astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the Moon. LC39A is currently used by SpaceX, and is scheduled to carry astronauts to the International Space Station in 2020.
Thanks to Krissy Elliot for editing & the entire Planet team for producing amazing data.
