Why not a launch facility in French Guyana? It is equatorial and under a lot less scrutiny than anywhere in the U.S., additionally it could be part of a fully functional launch facility that actually does launch commercial satellites.
The Proton boosters can be explained away as a business venture intended for emergency launch of weather satellites or to launch critical parts or crew return capsules to the Soyuz or Spacelab missions.
The go ahead never went for full funding and the project was mothballed for further consideration.
Never mind the caretakers watching over the investment.
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