On Sun, 29 May 2005, in sci.space.tech,
Charles Talleyrand said:

How does one launch a into a polar orbit from French Guyana? Where
does the first and second stage drop? I understand they are not
bombing New England, but how do they avoid this?

Kourou, French Guyana is 53W, Cape Cod is more than 70W; there's no need
to worry particularly that stages will fall on Boston. Assuming a
launch azimuth of zero degrees (i.e., right up the line of longitude),
the centre line of the range first encounters land at St. John's, on the
eastern tip of the island of Newfoundland. After that it continues over
the sea until it reaches the north-western limb of Greenland. All in
all, I can think of few Atlantic launching sites that would have a
longer range over sea at zero azimuth. This site:

http://satobs.org/faq/Chapter-09.txt

says that Kourou launches can be as much as minus eleven degrees
azimuth. Supposing it were a problem, launching a few degrees further
east, then correcting the path later ("dogleg" manoeuvre) would be an
option.

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