Considering the vast open sea to the south and limited open sea to the east, which areas would be suitable? What factors should be considered?
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1$\begingroup$ It's a good question! It needs good infrastructure (electricity, water sewage for the people working there) more electricity for the air conditioning, liquifiers and refrigerators for liquid propellants etc. good roads, access to bedrock for construction, good drainage/runoff after storms, shouldn't be too close to major airports or cross popular commercial airline or military flight plans (includes neighboring countries) etc. Also think about the future, for example: How soon will LC-39A be at significant risk to storm-surge damage? $\endgroup$– uhohCommented Oct 21 at 23:33
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6$\begingroup$ One additional point of clarification is what type of orbit you’re interested in. Geostationary, sounding rocket, sun-stationary, polar, etc. $\endgroup$– fyrepenguinCommented Oct 22 at 0:42
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2$\begingroup$ Most of it is less than 12 m (39 ft) above sea level, and it is estimated that about 10% of its land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1 m (3.3 ft). This would require somewhere that's not going to be subject to ocean flooding soon. $\endgroup$– FredCommented Oct 23 at 0:31
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1$\begingroup$ See: tbsnews.net/features/panorama/… and reddit.com/r/bangladesh/comments/rmzidw/… $\endgroup$– Nilay GhoshCommented Oct 27 at 13:19
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1$\begingroup$ Similar reason as Pakistan: quora.com/… $\endgroup$– Nilay GhoshCommented Oct 27 at 16:05
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1 Answer
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There are several overlapping issues that complicate the siting of a launch site In Bangladesh.
Achieving Geostationary or other equatorial orbits requires clear trajectory to the East, which is not be politically straightforward from the territory. Launching into polar or Sun-Synchronous Orbit is rather more politically possible.
There are a bunch of more prosaic political and logistic issues:
The launch site needs access from wherever the rocket will be built
It will be much cheaper if that rocket factory is near existing industrial infrastructure rather than needing new factories for every little bolt and screw
It is also easier if there is an existing pool of technically skilled people to support the factory and launch site.
Good road and rail access to both factory and launch facility is also helpful noting the size of many rocket components.
For the launch site itself, it is easier if it has enough terrain height for a flame trench to be dug though for smaller rockets this can be fairly simple.
The terrain needs to support buildings large enough to house the planned rocket size out of the weather and moving it to the launch location. Ideally this building should be able to protect the rocket and critical equipment through worst case weather.
The logistically simple solution would be where the rivers Padma and Meghna meet to the south of the Capital Dhaka, but this requires accepting that the rocket will fly over quite substantial towns and villages en route to coast.
A safer but more challenging launch site would be on the coast to the South of Dhaka, but all of it appears low lying and costly to build and sustain infrastructure on for any ongoing capability, though a single small demonstration launch could certainly be possible if it was politically acceptable to establish, use and then clear in the dry season.
Given the geography and heavy industry capabilities of Bangladesh if there was political will to have an ongoing domestic smallsat capability using a barge or ship that can be outfitted at existing industrial/technology areas well inland and then moved to an offshore location via river might be feasible.
answered Oct 27 at 12:00
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$\begingroup$ seconding your "factories for every bolt and screw" point, I've heard it speculated that a new technical company basically has to have overnight delivery from McMaster-Carr to succeed $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27 at 19:39
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$\begingroup$ The question asks for a launch site, not a factory. That's different. Guiana Space Centre only integrates, not manufactures. As an extreme example consider Sea Launch and Orbital's Pegasus. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 29 at 23:27