Although the eastern and western ranges share many similarities, each has distinct limitations and advantages. Two azimuths, 35 degrees north and 120 degrees south, represent the space launch limits from the Eastern Range. Any trajectory further north or south would send a spacecraft over an inhabited landmass. This would adversely affect safety provisions for abort or vehicle separation conditions and raise the undesirable possibility that a solid-rocket booster or external tank could fall in foreign territory. Although it is possible to access polar orbits from Cape Canaveral, it would require an energy-expensive "dogleg" flight path, resulting in a significant loss of payload capacity. The opposite is true for Vandenberg: Polar orbits are readily achieved without significant safety concerns, but equatorial space launches are precluded by overflight of the United States (a retrograde equatorial launch—opposite to Earth's rotation—would not be advantageous because of the greater energy costs). The Western Range, from its inception and throughout its history, has essentially been a DOD "war-fighting" asset, established to conduct research and development of ballistic and air-defense missiles and to support national defense spacelift operations. While supporting the common requirement for military access to space, each range has evolved its individual, complementary specialization.
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