Where does this come from, and can I check it?

An eastward launch over water keeps spent stages away from people. The figure is taken from NASA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a space fact?

Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Cape Canaveral was chosen partly for the ocean

An eastward launch over water keeps spent stages away from people Launching eastward adds Earth's rotation to the rocket's speed, and the Atlantic gives room for debris and range safety. The site also sits closer to the equator than most of the United States. Weather, especially lightning, delays a large share of attempts. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NASA

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

World Geography trivia

More facts like this

Baikonur is the oldest working spaceportSputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin both launched from the same Kazakh site The Cuban Missile Crisis brought super-powers to nuclear brinkA thirteen-day confrontation in 1962 resolved Soviet missile placement in Cuba Exoplanet HD 189733b experiences liquid glass rain blowing sidewaysSeven-thousand-kilometre winds sweep silicate glass drops through hot air Martian dust storms can swallow the whole planetOccasionally haze engulfs Mars for weeks and cuts off solar power Earth rotation deflects moving air masses and ocean currentsThe Coriolis effect turns winds rightward in the northern hemisphere and leftward in the south Cumulonimbus cloud towers can reach twelve kilometres highPowerful convective updrafts push storm clouds into the lower stratosphere

Tags: launch-sites, kennedy, weather

Cape Canaveral was chosen partly for the ocean: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: An eastward launch over water keeps spent stages away from people. The figure is taken from NASA, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?: Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.