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Why Rocket Sites Favor The Coast
- Position launch sites close to the equator to gain extra rotational speed from Earth when rockets launch.
- Launch eastwards over the sea so failed rockets fall into water and reduce civilian risk.
Digits As Identity: Cape Canaveral's 321
- Cape Canaveral's telephone dialing code is 321, chosen in 1999 to echo a rocket countdown and boost identity.
- Popular culture (films) influenced NASA's countdown convention, shifting some launches to a 'three, two, one' pattern.
Pushback Against Phone Numbers Was Loud
- Early resistors to numeric phone systems feared 'creeping numeralism' and claimed numbers would degrade memory.
- The Anti-Digit Dialing League mock-defended by giving operators absurdly long numeric requests to expose their objection's impracticality.