On the Caribbean coast, this facility has been launching rockets since 1964, and includes a space museum. Why here? A. a location near the Equator, meaning less energy is required to get a spacecraft into orbit, and B. it has open sea to the east reducing the chance of lower stages of rockets and debris from launch failures falling on or near populated areas. The most recent launch was in December 2021 of NASA's revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope.


NASA/Bill Ingalls