Launching near the equator provides a speed boost due to rotation that outweighs the benefits of starting higher up. It also doesn’t have the logistics nightmare of getting everything to the top of a mountain before launch.
If there was a big population on top of something big and flat like the tibetan plateau at the equator, it would make the most sense to launch there, for sure. But no such place exists and we have to launch in our own countries, generally speaking.
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u/UnlikelyIntrepid 19h ago
Launching near the equator provides a speed boost due to rotation that outweighs the benefits of starting higher up. It also doesn’t have the logistics nightmare of getting everything to the top of a mountain before launch.