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Originally Posted by tofu
That's the *only* reason  If you launch from KSC and head due east, you're at the same inclination as the moon.... |
In addition to avoiding plane change delta V, launching eastward from the Cape's latitude imparts major additional payload.
This is due to the earth's rotational velocity. It seems small -- just 1670 km/hr at the equator (1440 km/hr at the Cape), about 5-6% of orbital speed. However rocket payload is very sensitive to dry weight. The eastward rotation acts like an invisible booster, effectively lowering dry weight, giving a very non-linear payload improvement.
Even at the Cape's latitude that improvement DOUBLES the shuttle's payload, vs a polar inclination launch:
http://globalsecurity.org/space/systems/sts_brm.htm
The improvement is so significant the Sea Launch program built an entire towable sea platform, partially to launch further south at the equator:
http://www.sea-launch.com/