Why is the American launch facility in Florida?

Because of the tyranny of the rocket equation.

More accurately, because the Earth is spinning, and we can use that to get to orbit more cheaply.

Also because Hawaii is inconvenient from the East coast, especially in the 60's.

An orbit is flying by Douglas Adams' definition: "throwing yourself at the ground and missing."

To be in orbit around Earth means that when Earth's gravity pulls you 1 meter closer to the Earth, the Earth's surface has curved away 1 meter. (ok that's a circular orbit go with it)

In order for this to work, you need to be moving sideways really fast. So most of a rocket's energy is expended not getting the rocket UP, but getting the rocket to move SIDEWAYS.

Ignoring air resistance, a rocket launched straight up from the Earth's surface would reach 100 km with "only" 1.4 km/s of initial velocity.

Of course, it would immediately fall right back.

To *stay* in low Earth orbit, a rocket needs to be moving sideways at about 7.9 km/s.

This is why we don't bother to launch rockets from mountaintops. *Up* isn't the problem, *over* is the problem.

A rocket that just goes straight up this called a "sounding rockets," and obviously you try not to put people on them.

That's the problem of spaceflight: getting something going that fast before it falls back down to Earth.

That ~7.9 km/s orbital speed is true for any (mostly circular) orbit around the Earth. But, here's where things get tricky: the Earth isn't standing still. It's rotating. At the equator, the Earth moves at about 0.47 km/s.

The orbital speed is measured relative to the center of the Earth, not the surface, so that initial speed of the rocket from the surface of the Earth can either help or hurt you.

The Earth spins west-to-east, so the rocket is initially moving eastward.

If you wanted to launch westward, you'd first have to kill all that eastward speed, then make it up to 7.9 km/s to stay in orbit.

But if you launch east, you get a running start, so to speak.

Also, the Earth spins once a day, but the equator has the furthest to go in that day.

A point on the Poles isn't moving at all, relative to the center, so as you move north or south, your initial eastward velocity decreases.

So, if you want to launch as cheaply as possible, you build your launchpad on the Equator, and point it east.

Florida is not just close to the equator for mainland US, but has a clear launch corridor into the Atlantic.

Remember a rocket doesn't have to just go up, it has to go sideways, and burn a hell of a lot of fuel while it is doing that.

So you want a looooong path with no one beneath it in case the rocket is Not Going to Space Today.

Why not Hawaii, 8 degrees closer to the equator? Because it's really far away from the places that build rockets (and the people who build rockets, and the politicians who want to be filmed visiting the place that sends rockets into space).

There are better places to launch into space than Florida. French Guiana, Indonesia, New Guinea all are very close to the equator and have immense ocean launch corridors to their east. Of course, then you run into political and supply-chain issues.

The Soviets had an even worse time than the Americans did. Baikonur is 48 degrees north of the equator, really killing the boost rockets get from the Earth's rotation. And the launch corridor is over land.

Russia famously has had issues over the years with warm water ports. It's like... a whole thing. This is just another consequence of that.

To be able to resupply from Baikonur, the ISS has to have a very inclined orbit.

Vandenburg on the west coast of the US has no eastern launch corridor. They use it to launch southward, losing all advantage of the Earth's rotation, and resulting in polar orbits for the satellites.

So if you want to launch something heavy, you do it from Florida.

But why all this fuss for what is at best a measly 0.465 km/s? (0.41 from Canaveral)? Because of that damn rocket equation.

What's that? Well, when you're launching a rocket, you have to have reaction mass - the stuff you throw one way really fast so you go the other way less fast.

Fuel is the stuff you use to get the energy to throw reaction mass. For chemical rockets, the reaction mass is also fuel

But, the more you want to take into space, the more reaction mass you need, and that mass needs to be carried at least partway into space. So you need reaction mass to carry that reaction mass.

See a pattern forming?

So you have reaction mass to carry reaction mass, which requires reaction mass, which requires reaction mass...

If you've ever calculated compound interest, you know where this is going: exponentials.

The math is the same as with interest: and ends in the same place, the amount of final mass you can move in a rocket depends exponentially on the amount of delta V - the change in velocity of the rocket.

And hey, exponential growth. Sounds familiar? The horrors of uncontrolled exponential growth are something we all are acquainted with.

Well, all of us except the people now in charge of our rocket program. Unfortunately.

So, that 0.41 km/s boost for our 7.9 km/s maneuver isn't a mere 5% gain. The mass you can get to orbit it exponentially sensitive to the delta V you need to impart. Thus: we launch from stormy Florida.

Of course, once you're in low Earth orbit, another 8 km/s will get you nearly anywhere interesting in the Solar System.

Thus, we say that once you're in Low Earth Orbit, you're halfway to anywhere.

Except the Sun, of course. https://twitter.com/physicsmatt/status/1256244468874907654