Why are the rockets launched from Kennedy space center rather than Houston Texas?

Answer 1

Many factors go into choosing launch sites.

• Ease of orbit insertion
• Safety
• fuel quantity
• orbit inclination
• and politics

The easiest and cheapest way to get into orbit is the use the Earths velocity. Since the Earth is round, the land mass nearest the equator needs to travel a lot quicker then the land that is closer to the poles, therefore the closer you are to the equator the quicker you are already traveling and the less fuel you are required to use.

When NASA was created all of the astronaut training was done in at the Kennedy Space Center, KSC for short (their training facility wasn't yet named the KSC but rather the Launch Operations Directorate). One of the only reasons why NASA has most of its training operations in Houston is because of Senator and soon to be vice president Lyndon B. Johnson. LBJ being from Texas absolutely wanted his state to be the center for NASA operations. Houston however is not well situated for launching space vehicles for safety reasons. When the shuttle launches from the KSC, after a few seconds it is already over the Atlantic Ocean. In case of the vehicles disintegration, like what happened to the space shuttle Challenger, the vehicle is away from any city that large pieces of metal could fall on. If a rocket took off from Houston, the danger of a vehicle malfunction is even greater.