Equatorial Locations
Rocket bases will be located on the equator to take advantage of the Earth's rotational speed of about 1,000 mph ( 0.29 miles/second or 0.46 kps). This will also make it possible for rocket bases to launch to specific LEEO taxiport stations and for returning spacecraft to descend to particular surface bases every 100 minutes. It will also be possible to ascend to or descend from one of numerous LEEO stations every few minutes. If there are 20 LEEO taxiports, one could be accessed every five minutes. This could simplify scheduling, navigation and make it easier to deal with medical emergencies that demand quick return to Earth from LEEO stations.
Time Zones
Rocket bases will be located in each of the more populous time zones so that space travelers don't have to deal with jet lag in addition to lift-off G forces and possible space sickness in weightlessness. They will fly north or south within their own time zones to reach equatorial rocket bases.
A rocket base in the Andes of Ecuador between 75 degrees west and 90W will serve people in the US Eastern time zone. A base for the Central time zone will located on or near the Galapagos. The Mountain and Pacific zones will be served by bases moored in the Pacific Ocean.
Floating cities similar to Marshall Savage's Aquarius would serve as rocket ports and make money in the space travel business. These floating cities will use OTEC power and extract hydrogen and oxygen for rocket propellant from sea water. In the Hawaiian zone between 150W and 165W a base could be located on Jarvis Island. Since this is a small island there will be floating complexes or complexes similar to off-shore oil rigs standing in the shallow waters surrounding Jarvis Island nearby.
An Atlantic zone base could be located in Brazil between 60W and 75W and another one on the Atlantic coast of Brazil near the mouth of the Amazon River. These Brazilian bases could get power from hydro dams on tributaries of the Amazon. If travelers must fly SE, NE, SW or NW to bases in time zones one or two hours different that will not cause jet lag so there is some flexibility. Travelers from Rio de Janeiro could easily travel to the base on the mouth of the Amazon without jet lag.
A floating base between 15W and 0 degrees longitude will serve England, or the English could fly to a base between 0 deg. and 15E in Gabon in the same zone as France, Germany and most of Italy. Another base could be located in Zaire on the Congo between 15E and 30E and another on the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia in the 30E to 45E time zone. Most of Europe and Russia could be served by these African bases.
Floating bases in the Indian Ocean in the 35E-60E, 60E-75E and 75E-90E time zones could serve travelers from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and India. For 90E-105E there could be a base on the eastern coast of Sumatra and for 105E-120E there could be one on the eastern coast of Borneo that serve Southeast Asia and most of China. For 120E-135E covering travelers from Manchuria, Korea, the Philippines, parts of Japan, Taiwan and central Australia. There could be one on Hamahera or Celebes in the East Indies for most of Japan and one on New Guinea. Another base would float between 150E-165E just north of the Bismarck Archipelago and one could be located between 160E-175E near Nauru or Kiribati.
All told, 20 rocket bases could cover the most populous and most affluent time zones of the world. Indians would have several oceanic bases to launch from and Chinese travelers could cross a time zone or two to access more bases without hardship. Pacific Islanders and New Zealanders could use bases near Nauru or Kiribati or Jarvis in the Hawaiian zone.
Space Travel for the Masses
If 30 million people fly to the Moon every year that means 210 million can go in seven years and 2.1 billion or more over the course of a lifetime. Each base must handle 1.5 million travelers per year and 4110 per day. If each VTOL carries 200 passengers then 21 launches a day and 21 landings must take place. That's one launch every 68 minutes. VTOLs will splash down near ocean bases if weather permits.
The equator is in the doldrums and winds are not intense, thus parachuting descent will not be dangerous, but there are rains. This might effect operations so there will be hotels near surface rocket bases and hotels at LEEO taxiport stations in space in case of delays. A capacity to handle more than 21 launches and 21 landings per day will be needed in case of rare foul weather to keep things on schedule. For the most part, the doldrums are a meteorological dead zone so there won't be many problems due to the weather. Mountain tops might be okay to launch from, but I wouldn't want to parachute a VTOL into mountainous territory, so coastal equator, island and floating bases are best.
Bases will employ thousands of workers and multiple control centers to keep things buzzing. If VTOLs use solid or hybrid rocket strap-on boosters there must be recovery operations to handle 84 boosters per day if four are used per VTOL. Single stage to orbit VTOLs may be preferable. If they use LH2 and LOX, beryllium, graphite composites and aluminum-lithium alloy construction it should be possible to build SSTO-VTOLs.
One thousand cycling stations the size of luxury liners making twelve flights per year could each haul 2500 passengers to move 30 million people. Since each cycler will make one flight every 27.3 days but two 13.66 day orbits there will be 365/13.66= 26.72 passes around Earth per year per cycler. A cycler will be rounding the Earth every twenty minutes but only half will be Moon bound.
Co-ordinating launches from Earth, rendezvous with LEEO taxiports and taxi flights to and from cycling stations will be very complex. If rockets fail to launch there is a good chance the passengers will miss the cycling station. If taxis fail the passengers might just get back aboard the cycler and take a long unplanned trip. There will be nuclear powered rescue ships based in GEO and at L2 to save taxis loaded with tourists if something goes wrong and taxis fail to rendezvous with the cycling station.
