<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Guam might be better - it's closer to the equator.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Or Hawaii, which has the bonus of being an actual state, which might make the political side a bit easier to navigate. The selection of Cape Canaveral was as much political as practical, really.<br /><br />But Guam, Hawaii and all other islands have the fundamental problem of being islands. It's just harder to get all the neccesary stuff there.<br /><br />But it could happen. After all, Orbital Sciences has used Kwajalein Atoll as the base for at least one Pegasus launch. (For those not in the know, Pegasus requires mostly just an airstrip long enough to accomodate a Lockheed Tristar, so it's pretty portable. The rocket actually gets dropped by a modified Tristar airliner, or a B-52 in the case of oversized payloads like the Hyper-X, and then ignited midair.) And Russia has for years been contemplating building an unmanned Soyuz launch complex on Christmas Island. <br /><br />EDIT: But I'm getting way offtopci in this offtopic thread. <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>