why is Kennedy space center located in Florida?

Answer 1

winters tend to be less harsh and cold weather is not conducive for launch as the challenger accident on january 86 illustrated when cold weather caused the failure of an o-ring on the solid rocket boosters

Answer 2

easy

the closer you are to the equator, the faster the Earth spins (not in turns per day, that's 1, but in mph).

so when you're going to launch a rocket, the closest you are to the equator, the more speed it will have just from starting from the right spot. This saves a HUGE amount of fuel.

Kuru, in French Guiana, where the European Space Agency's base is located, is 5 degrees North latitude. Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, is 28 degrees 26 minutes North - obviously less good but within US territory this was about the best possible.

Baikonur, Kazakhstand, the main Russian space base, is 45 degrees 37 minutes. Now that's bad.

How do these compare?
- at Kuru, the Earth will convey your rocket an initial speed of 1'040mph
- at Kennedy Space Center, you're down to 917mph
- at Baikonur, you're down to just 730mph


Apart from these physical considerations, which are the most important by far, you have other factors such as what if there is an accident: (1) can the rocket fall down and kill people, (2) is it easy to recover the bits. So not densely populated areas are best (and oceans are not populated at all).

Hope this helps

Answer 3

Good question.
In the early days they actually used the direction the earth rotates to gain extra power to escape gravity.

Also, they launch rockets over the ocean so there's less thing to damage if something goes wrong.

Kennedy is called the East Coast Test Range. The USA also has the West Coast Test Range at Vandenberg AFB California and they actually launch more rockets than Kennedy & Cape Canaveral; but none manned so no publicity. I think it's mostly weather and spy satellites.

Answer 4

This is what I found in internet:

"Cape Canaveral [place in which Kennedy Space Center is located] was chosen for rocket launches to take advantage of the earth's rotation. The centrifugal force of this rotation is greatest at the equator, and to take advantage of it, rockets are launched eastward, in the same direction of the earth's rotation.

It is also highly desirable to have the downrange area sparsely populated, in case of accidents; an ocean is ideal for this. Although the United States has sites closer to the equator with expanses of ocean to the east of them (e.g. Hawaii, Puerto Rico), the east coast of Florida has substantial logistical advantages over these island locations."

Hope this helps you!

Good luck!

Answer 5

I guess its a good place as there is near the atlantic as the rockets land in see. It is in a peninsula of the us. Another point altough it has nothing to do with space its in a good location for tourists as many people visit florida

Answer 6

Because it takes less energy to launch a payload into equatorial orbit from low latitudes, and Florida is the lowest latitude in the continental US.

Answer 7

Less things to blow up when a rocket goes bad.
NASA... Need another seven astronauts.