NASA Wallops flight center

can the shuttle be launched from there? theres not much around but bird horse refuges.

Could be yes... But economical and physical feasibility may be a problem. A) you'd have to GET the shuttle and everything required to launch it (boosters, fuel tanks, launch pad) there. That would be nearly impossible, I would think.

Also, one of the reasons for the Shuttle being launched from Cape Canaveral is that it is closer to the equator, which gives the shuttle (and other heavy rockets) a slight boost towards Earth's escape velocity.

It is better when you can use the assembly buidling and cart the shuttle to the lauchpad.

No it cannot even launch anything manned, ham was the closest it ever came to manned space flight.

the Kennedy space Center is the only known place where americans have launched into space, from America. At Vandenburg a shuttle pad was built for polar orbital missions and the Space shuttel Enterprise was mated to model boosters and an actual external tank there, but problems were found that would have cost about a billion $ to fix so the pad was scrapped, I think it was replaced by the Delta IV heavy pad there now



[edit on 27-3-2005 by roniii259]