What is south from the earth? I never heard of space ships going south from earth?

Answer 1

And you never will. Compass directions apply only in relation to motion or direction on the surface of the earth. Spacecraft don't move in compass directions, except right at takeoff and landing. The space shuttle rises to an orbital altitude and velocity. It can be said that orbits are in an easterly direction, that is only because they take advantage of the earth's rotation to add speed at launching. All orbits are eastward for that reason.

But there are no compass directions out into space away from the earth. You might send a space probe in the direction of a certain point in the celestial coordinate system of Right Ascension and Declination, but those are distinctly not compass directions.

And please, don't think of space as a giant ocean. An ocean has a flat surface with compass directions. Space does not.

Answer 2

Earth from space is just a ball, a globe a sphere – hanging in space. It astonishes me that many people cannot visualise that. Just hold a ball in the air and that is it. There is no north and south to a ball. North and south are simply conveniencies for us to navigate by on Earth – they have no meaning in space.

And what do you mean, space ships never go south? – when have you heard that space ships go north? Do you mean “up”. Do you not realise we live on a ball and in order to go into space we have to go “up” from Earth. That is not north.

Wherever you live on earth, your legs point down to the center of the Earth when you are standing upright (gosh, I can’t believe I am having to explain this). So, in essence, from space, people at the North pole and South pole will appear upside down to each other. When either one points into the sky, they point in opposite directions to each other. Their Ups are opposite to each other because both are being pulled to the center of the Earth by gravity, and that will be theirDOWN.

Rockets have to leave Earth by going UP. Therefore if you launched from the north pole, your rocket would go up in the opposite direction to a rocket launched from the south pole. (Not that anyone launches rockets from the poles).

Answer 3

It probably meant that the spacecraft was making an orbit over the southern part of the Earth i.e. the South Pole. This is a common occurance for low-orbit weather and mapping satellites.

Answer 4

a black hole.

space ship intending on leaving earth orbit require a certain escape velocity of about 25,300 mph. Since that is relative to Earth, going east adds the Earth rotation to that speed.
going N, S, or W would have a disadvantage.

If u are just going to orbit earth, then your purpose defines the orbit.
GPS satellites are polar orbits
DirectTV satellites are synchronous equatorial orbits

Answer 5

Cardinal Directions are relative, if you go any "direction" from earth you will end up at another star in the galaxy most likely, and at another galaxy if you go far enough. Think of the Universe as giant ocean

Answer 6

the problem with this question is that once you get out of the earths gravity well, is there really a south? i mean direction is all relative to your viewpoint once you get out of gravity...