[inquest]

The Earth is rotating the ground from "East" to "West" under the vehicle.

I think you may have that backwards, unless I'm misunderstanding you. If you were to look at a map of the U.S., and picture it a great big vehicle, the eastern seabord is the leading edge. Thus the earth would be rotating from west to east. The shuttle, as I understand it, would move in the same direction as the earth precisely because this gives added boost to the shuttle's speed relative to the center of the earth.

The reason for my confusion in my earlier question was that I thought the shuttle was supposed to land in California or somewhere thereabouts (Edwards Air Force Base, IIRC). I was totally unaware that Cape Canaveral had a landing facility. I thought it was launch only. Another poster corrected me.

[bonesmccoy]

I apologize. I got reversed in my comment.
You are correct. The sun clearly rises in the East and sets in the West. Relative to the ground, the vehicle is rolling under the flight from west to east. Since the vehicle is flying W to E and the Earth is rotating WITH the vehicle, it adds additional relative velocity like a toss from a moving car in the direction of the car's travel, rather than against the direction of the car (where you would need additional delta V to achieve orbit).

This point is important when considering launches into polar orbit from Vandenberg AFB in California.

Thanks.