Look, I’m from the government and I’d like to remind you all that the mole people are just a myth. We have mining regulations to save lives, except not from the mole men. Let’s say it’s for safety. Anyway, you should trust the government.

Generally the variation in gravitational field is so weak it doesn’t do much except add errors to data. It’s more efficient to launch satellites near the equator, but that’s not because of the Earth’s bulge or gravity, but rather the big radial velocity down there.