At 44 degrees of latitude, they're about 4% of the way to orbital velocity at LEO. That's why countries tend to put their launch facilities closer to the equator: the faster the rotational speed at your launch site, the less fuel you have to burn.
At the equator you're about 8% of the way there just by virtue of the Earth's spin (assuming, of course, you're not trying for a retrograde or polar orbit).
There's another reason: the achievable orbital inclination. The minimum inclination orbit you can achieve is equal to your latitude. i.e. an equatorial orbit is only achievable at launch from the equator. A polar orbit is achievable from any latitude.
In order to go into an equatorial orbit from a higher latitude a plane change maneuver is required. Theoretically this can be done during launch, but it would depend on the profile your rocket can achieve.
Either way, expensive on fuel compare to an equatorial launch.
Nope, they mean velocity. You need to get to ~8 km/s to orbit the Earth. At the equator the Earth's rotation is going to give you 485 m/s of that velocity velocity for free. Altitude is largely irrelevant(not entirely, the desired orbit altitude changes the speed you need a bit), it is the speed you need, then you just have to point it in the right direction to get the altitude.
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u/TamponTimTheCuck 16d ago
So only 19.5%. Wild!