Why do rockets launch from florida?

Rockets bound for orbit usually launch eastward to add the Earth's rotational speed to their own. At the latitude of Cape Canaveral, about 28.5 degrees north, that free contribution is roughly 410 m/s, more than at any other established site in the continental United States except the southern tip of Texas. Just as important, everything east of the Cape is the Atlantic Ocean. Spent stages, fairings and, in the worst case, a failed vehicle fall into open water rather than onto towns, which is the single most important safety criterion for a launch range.

The site was chosen in 1949 for a joint missile proving ground, and the first launch, a modified V-2 called Bumper 8, took place on 24 July 1950. The Air Force base grew along the coast as ballistic missiles were tested, and when NASA needed room for the Saturn V it bought Merritt Island next door and built the Kennedy Space Center, with Launch Complex 39 completed in the mid-1960s. Decades of infrastructure, tracking stations down the Atlantic, skilled workers and a climate that allows year-round operations have made the area hard to replace.

Florida is not the only American spaceport. Vandenberg in California serves polar and sun-synchronous orbits, which require launching south over the Pacific; Wallops in Virginia handles smaller vehicles; and SpaceX flies Starship from Texas. Yet the Florida coast hosts the large majority of U.S. orbital launches, with several active pads used by Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Atlas V, Vulcan, New Glenn and the Space Launch System. Its combination of latitude, an empty ocean downrange and more than seventy years of investment is what keeps the count so high.