787: Orbiter

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 20:49, 21 January 2014 by 141.101.99.195 (talk) (Explanation)
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Orbiter
Normally, the Shuttle can't quite safely reach the orbital inclination required to pass over both those points from a Canaveral launch, but this is an alternate history in which either it launches from Vandenburg or everyone hates the Outer Banks.
Title text: Normally, the Shuttle can't quite safely reach the orbital inclination required to pass over both those points from a Canaveral launch, but this is an alternate history in which either it launches from Vandenburg or everyone hates the Outer Banks.

Explanation

This comic is about disputed territories and polar orbits.

The two disputes referred to here are the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the Texas-Oklahoma dispute. The satellite would probably require a polar orbit to reach both Israel and Oklahoma, which cannot be achieved from a launch at Cape Caneveral, as the launch trajectories would cause debris and spent fuel tanks from the Shuttle during its ascent to fall in heavily populated areas.

The reason the Vandenburg option is an alternate history is because there actually were plans to launch shuttles from there before the Challenger accident occurred. After Challenger was lost the polar orbiting missions were scrapped and Cape Canaveral became the sole launch site for the Space Shuttle.

In the alternate history, mentioned in the title text, the rules forbidding orbital launches from Caneveral to that polar inclination don’t exist, either because nobody cares what happens to the Outer Banks (which would be in the flight path) or nobody likes them and they’re deserted. The entire reason for this even being pointed out is just Randall's being obsessive-compulsive.

Transcript

Cueball: Okay, people. The orbiter is passing south of Iceland. The next scheduled check-in will be at 32.0N 35.5E, over the Palestinian territories.
Off-screen character: You mean over Palestine?
Frank (off-screen): You mean over Israel?
[Beat panel.]
Cueball: I've rescheduled the check-in for 35.2N 96.6W,over Oklahoma.
Frank (off-screen): You mean occupied North Texas?
Cueball: Dammit, Frank.
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Discussion

So, I suppose a flight to the Diaoyu islands is out of the question then. Davidy²²[talk] 02:25, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

did you mean: Senkaku Islands? --Quicksilver (talk) 01:11, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

I feel like this explanation page is completely neglecting to explain the joke, which is situational humor in which Cueball, to avoid a workplace conflict between two people who feel strongly about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, eliminates the discussion before it happens by rescheduling the check-in to what he thinks is a place which has no territorial disputes. Frank then decides to be a butt and bring up the old Texas dispute. 108.162.238.203 16:56, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

May be a deeper joke here. When the space shuttle Columbia crashed, it was over Palestine, Texas. 108.162.246.207 02:37, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

The given lat-long for Oklahoma doesn't appear to actually relate to Greer County. I have very little knowledge of Texas vs Oklahoma turf wars, do some Texans believe all/most of Oklahoma should be within Texas? --Pudder (talk) 10:33, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

For what it's worth, the coordinates fall within Seminole Nation territory. I wanted to make a joke about "occupied Muscogee Nation" in reference to McGirt v. Oklahoma, but 96.6W is a few miles too far west. If only it was 96.4W... --172.68.182.116 00:51, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

This comic aged like honey. Honey is naturally antimicrobial. 172.69.42.50 01:56, 22 May 2021 (UTC)

I don't think it is "probably based on the wrong assumption that the inclination cannot be higher than the latitude of the launch site;" Randall should know better than that. It's probably based on drawing a great circle through Israel and Oklahoma and noting that the inclination of that plane is greater than 57 degrees, and forgetting to account for the 12 degrees or so of rotation the earth will experience while the orbiter in en-route. That seems an easier mistake for someone who knows a bit about orbital mechanics to make, and it's more consistent with the alt-text mentioning the Outer Banks, which is where the shuttle would be dropping rocket bits on an ascent to a ~60 degree orbit.172.69.79.173 01:43, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

While the page is highlighted by the above edit, I've neutralised the undue assumption that Frank originally piped up in favour of Israel. Very probably "Israel person" is just over in the same direction (limited options for showing separate voices in a crowded room, very slightly different elevation of emination) and doesn't themself have any strong concern over Texan(ish) territory like Frank does. 141.101.99.6 05:36, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

('_') --162.158.74.119 11:28, 21 December 2023 (UTC)