why the ISS orbit is tilted 51.6 degrees

How I got here

Started with

Why is the ISS orbit inclined 51.6 degrees?

Ended at

Orbital inclination

The Trail

1. “why is ISS inclination 51.6 degrees” (google.com)
2. International Space Station (en.wikipedia.org)
3. Baikonur Cosmodrome (en.wikipedia.org)
4. Orbital inclination (en.wikipedia.org)

What I came away with

So Russian launches from Baikonur (about 45.6°N) can reach it without dropping spent stages over China. The tradeoff is that launches from Florida give up some payload to get there.

Keep going

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