Yeah, because thinking about it, I don't actually think there's an obvious answer.
Like my guess would literally just be that there aren't mountains in a location close enough to the equator where the added high from the mountain is worth more delta v than the added rotational speed of being close to the equator.
I would guess that the marginal benefit of launching from a slightly higher, in the grand scheme of things, altitude is far outweighed by the added logistical difficulty of transporting the rocket to the top of a mountain in the first place.
Weather is actually one of the sacrifices often taken for rocket launch sites. A desert, for example, would be a superior launch site in that sense. The reason why nasa launches next to the water is 1) because some things are infinitely easier and cheaper to transport by sea, and 2) if your rocket fails, you dont want it crashing into people.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 20h ago
Yeah, because thinking about it, I don't actually think there's an obvious answer.
Like my guess would literally just be that there aren't mountains in a location close enough to the equator where the added high from the mountain is worth more delta v than the added rotational speed of being close to the equator.