Yes to everything except the equator for launches. If that were true, Africa, South America, and subtropical land would have been picked.
My understanding is that launch sites are chosen more for the weather, the atmospheric density, and the infrastructure.
Most launches occur out of Kazakhstan ro for their high altitude and thin atmosphere. Also the soviets were poor and too cheap to build anywhere else; but the fact remains it has good weather, a thin atmosphere, and is close to it’s supporting space agency with infrastructure to it.
There is launch site in Plesetsk, Russia, not far from north pole. You need a significant amout of excess fuel to launch a satellite with something different from polar orbit. That is why only small amount of light-weight satellites launched from there. No any serious space vehicles was lauched from Plesetsk.
Baikonur in Kasakhstan is much closer to equator, than other Russian launch sites. That is why it still used to launch most heavy missions, despite being placed in another country. And it is not close to infrastructure at all. Most infrastructure from manufacturing facilities to mission control is in Russia, not far from Moscow,
You don't need to be exactly at equator to get most from Earth rotation.
Yes to everything except the equator for launches. If that were true, Africa, South America, and subtropical land would have been picked.
My understanding is that launch sites are chosen more for the weather, the atmospheric density, and the infrastructure.
Most launches occur out of Kazakhstan ro for their high altitude and thin atmosphere. Also the soviets were poor and too cheap to build anywhere else; but the fact remains it has good weather, a thin atmosphere, and is close to it’s supporting space agency with infrastructure to it.
There is launch site in Plesetsk, Russia, not far from north pole. You need a significant amout of excess fuel to launch a satellite with something different from polar orbit. That is why only small amount of light-weight satellites launched from there. No any serious space vehicles was lauched from Plesetsk.
Baikonur in Kasakhstan is much closer to equator, than other Russian launch sites. That is why it still used to launch most heavy missions, despite being placed in another country. And it is not close to infrastructure at all. Most infrastructure from manufacturing facilities to mission control is in Russia, not far from Moscow,
You don't need to be exactly at equator to get most from Earth rotation.
They are selected for places where the public can't see the "rockets" crash down into the ocean a few miles away.