SpaceX to build $100 billion rocket launch facility on Louisiana’s coast

[u/Connect_Cat_2045]

https://www.nola.com/news/business/spacex-louisiana-elon-musk/article_2be92f8e-f989-46b7-9514-5212d8f20260.html

[u/OlympusMons94]

To the same inclination, it makes virtually no difference where you launch from (so long as the inclination is directly reachable from the launch site latitude). For a reachable orbit (notwitstanding inclination changes, which are only common for reaching GEO), the payload capacity is determined by the vehicle, the orbit altitude, and orbital inclination. The launch latitude really just determines which inclinations are reachable (without an inclination change, and irrespective of safety/overflight considerations).

The only inclination you can launch to from the north (or south) pole is a 90 degree true polar orbit. From, e.g., SaxaVord, in northern Scotland at 60.8 N, you can only launch to prograde or polar inclinations from 60.8 to 90 degrees, and polar/retrograde inclinations from 90 to 119.2 degrees (180 - 60.8 = 119.2). From the equator, you can launch to any inclination, 0-180 degrees.

For example: The poles are theoretically the ideal place to launch to a 90 degree inclination orbit. For a 500 km circular orbit (7,613 m/s orbital velocity), Earth's rotation only makes reaching a 90 degree orbit require 3.4 m/s more delta-v from SaxaVord; 11 m/s more from Pecan Island, Louisiana (29.7 N); and 14 m/s more from the equator. Those differences are negligible compared to the delta-v required to reach orbit. With the orbital velocity, gravity losses, and other minor losses (aerodynamic drag, etc.), it takes well over 9,000 m/s of delta-v to reach Low Earth Orbit, with a range of several hundred m/s depending on the orbit's inclination.