While Boca Chica isn't really close to the Equator, its disadvantage against a launch point exactly at the equator is approximately cosine of its latitude, whic

While Boca Chica isn't really close to the Equator, its disadvantage against a launch point exactly at the equator is approximately cosine of its latitude, which at 26 N is still quite merciful. Being in the continental US, South Texas has some major advantages that offset this relatively small loss of efficiency during launch. Various factory sites, such as McGregor, are within reasonable trucking distance. Most of SpaceX employees are Americans and Americans are more willing to move around America than to move to the other side of the world. Queensland could work, even though the moving costs would be high. Small atolls in the middle of the ocean would be very impractical, though. Even Kwajalein has weather that rusts everything in its path. At the end of the day, the US government and Congress knows that it is caught in a new Space Race with China and that it is in American interests to make the launch licensing process more streamlined. Not just for SpaceX, but for all its future competitors.