Kennedy Space Center: Celebrating 60 Years of Launching the Future

July 20, 2022

America’s Spaceport – Part 3

By Bob Granath

In the decade after the first rocket lifted off into the skies above Cape Canaveral, the launch site became the focal point of America’s efforts to explore beyond Earth. To meet President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon, a expansive new site was needed. That location became NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, a premier multi-user spaceport now commemorating its 60th anniversary.

Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro is presented the National Space Club Florida Chapter’s Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award during a ceremony on June 24, 2022. The prestigious honor, named for Kennedy's first director, was presented “for her contributions to America's aerospace efforts.” — Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro is presented the National Space Club Florida Chapter’s Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award during a ceremony on June 24, 2022. The prestigious honor, named for Kennedy’s first director, was presented “for her contributions to America’s aerospace efforts.” Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

“As we celebrate this diamond anniversary, I can’t help but think back to the early days of Kennedy and what it must have felt like to embrace the challenge of making the impossible possible,” Center Director Janet Petro recently said in recalling the center’s history.

During the early 1960s, thousands of aerospace specialists flocked to Florida’s Space Coast to support the fledgling space program. Petro was like so many other children of the Space Age.

Dr. Wernher von Braun, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, left, and Dr. Kurt Debus, director of the Kennedy Space Center, attend the rollout of Saturn 500F from the Vehicle Assembly Building on May 26, 1966. — Dr. Wernher von Braun, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, left, and Dr. Kurt Debus, director of the Kennedy Space Center, attend the rollout of the first Saturn V on May 26, 1966. Photo credit: NASA

“Some of my fondest childhood memories are standing on Satellite Beach with my eyes to the sky, watching the launches that were literally making history,” she said. “My family moved to Florida when my dad took a job supporting the Apollo Program in the early 1960s, just after Kennedy Space Center was established to meet the audacious goal of landing humans on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.”

When the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex was established in 1950, it was an extension of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency’s (ABMA) Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Dr. Kurt Debus supervised the development of the launch facilities at the Cape for the Redstone, Jupiter and Juno rockets as ABMA’s Launch Operations director. After the organization transitioned from the Army to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, also in Huntsville, Debus directed the design, development and construction of NASA’s Saturn Launch Complexes 34 and 37 at the Cape.

Launch Operations Center

On July 1, 1962, the Launch Operations Directorate was separated from Marshal,l becoming the Launch Operations Center at the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex with Debus as director. However, the 15,000-acre site could not support the sprawling complex needed to support the Saturn V rocket designed to send crews to the Moon. Plans called for the Saturn V rocket to be assembled vertically in a large hangar and transported on a mobile platform to one of two launch pads.

Dr. George Mueller, pointing to charts, briefs President John F. Kennedy and other officials on the Apollo Program while inside the blockhouse of Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Seated in the front row, left to right, are: NASA Chief of Manned Space Flight George Low, Kennedy Space Center Director Kurt Debus, NASA Associate Administrator Robert Seamans, NASA Administrator James Webb, President Kennedy, NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh Dryden, and Marshall Space Flight Center Director Wernher von Braun. Photo credit: NASA

That same year, NASA began acquiring 140,000 acres of land on adjacent Merritt Island for the new center, also known as the Merritt Island Launch Annex, or MILA. The agency also bought title to 131 square miles of land and negotiated with the state of Florida for an additional 87 square miles.

One of the last trips Kennedy made as president was to the Cape on Nov. 16, 1963. While touring the Florida spaceport, he received extensive briefings on progress toward construction of facilities to reach his goal of landing men on the lunar surface. Following his assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order on Nov. 29, 1963 renaming NASA’s Merritt Island launch complex as the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

‘Think Big’

*The Vehicle Assembly Building is seen while under construction. The two-year process began with driving the first of 4,225 pilings. Photo credit: NASA*

According to James Webb, NASA’s administrator from 1961-1968, the new location was needed to “insure the United States played a leadership role in the development and use of space.”

“Our national leaders knew we would have to ‘think big’ in building Launch Complex 39 and launching the Saturn V,” he said.

To do just that, the new center would be divided into two sections, the Industrial Area and Launch Complex 39. The LC 39 area would include a mammoth Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. At 525 feet tall and covering eight acres, it encloses 129,328,000 cubic feet of space. At the time it was completed, it was the largest building in the world.

*The size of a regulation baseball diamond, the crawler-transporter weighs over six-million pounds. Photo credit: NASA*

Inside the VAB, the 363-foot-tall Saturn V rocket stages were stacked on a mobile launcher that induced a 380-foot-tall launch umbilical tower with nine swing arms, allowing technicians and engineers access to the rocket while at the launch pad prior to liftoff. During the Apollo Program from 1967 to 1975, 13 Saturn Vs and four Saturn 1Bs were stacked in the VAB.

The mobile launcher and Saturn V rocket slowly rolled from the VAB to either Launch Complex 39 A or B atop a crawler transporter. The six-million-pound crawler was the size of a regulation baseball diamond. Moving at one-mile-per-hour along a gravel crawler way, it would deliver the mobile launcher with the Saturn V to the launch pad after an eight-hour trip of three miles to Pad A or 4.5 miles to Pad B.

*The Saturn 500F Facilities Verification Vehicle rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building along the Kennedy Space Center’s gravel crawlerway on May 25, 1966. Photo credit: NASA*

The first rocket stacked and rolled out from the VAB was the Saturn V 500F facilities verification test vehicle. It moved to Pad 39A on May 25, 1966, exactly five years to the day after President Kennedy asked Congress to authorize funds for “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” The first Saturn V launched the uncrewed Apollo 4 mission on Nov. 9, 1967.

On the morning of July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong prepares to don his helmet in the suit-up room of the crew quarters in the Kennedy Space Center's Manned Spacecraft Operations Building that will now bear his name. — Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong prepares to don his helmet in the suit-up room of the crew quarters in the Kennedy Space Center’s Manned Spacecraft Operations Building that will now bear his name. Photo credit: NASA

Instead of mission managers and engineers huddled in a concrete-reinforced blockhouse near a launch pad, they were housed in the Launch Control Center built adjacent to the VAB. Due to the complexity of the Saturn V rocket and Apollo spacecraft, vast arrays of consoles were assembled and staffed in four Firing Rooms.

*The 363-foot Saturn V builds up to 7.5 million pounds of thrust on July 16, 1969 to send Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin on the first lunar landing mission, Photo credit: NASA*

In Kennedy’s Industrial Area, construction included the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building. In this facility, Apollo command/service modules and lunar modules were processed prior to being transported to the VAB for stacking atop the Saturn V. The building also included the crew quarters. Beginning with Project Gemini in 1965, astronauts lived there in the days leading up to a mission, suited up and departed for the trip to the launch pad. Simulators for Apollo missions also were located in the Industrial Area along with fields where astronauts practiced tasks to be performed while walking on the lunar surface.

On July 20, 1969, an estimated one million visitors gathered at or near Kennedy to watch the historic liftoff of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin on the first moon landing mission.

Space Shuttle Era

After completing the STS-135 mission, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed into Bay 2 of the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. The mission was the last of the 30-year program. — After completing the STS-135 mission, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed into Bay 2 of the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011. The mission was the last of the 30-year program. Photo credit: NASA

Following the Apollo Program, many of the buildings used during the lunar landing effort were refurbished to accommodate the Space Shuttle. One of those was the VAB. Inside, the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters were stacked atop one of the three mobile launcher platforms. The external fuel tank was attached between the two boosters and the shuttle orbiter mounted to the tank. The three mobile launchers used in Apollo were modified to accommodate exhaust ports for the shuttle’s three main engines and two solid rocket boosters. Additionally, the launch umbilical towers were dismantled and removed.

*The Space Shuttle Atlantis sits atop its mobile launcher platform at Launch Complex 39A prior to STS-135 in July 2011. Photo credit: SpaceAgeChronicle.com/Bob Granath*

The Space Shuttle Program required numerous other new buildings on the center. Initially, a two bay Orbiter Processing Facility, or OPF, was constructed. A third bay was added later. Inside, the 29,000-square-foot bays, or hangars, the experienced mechanics and technicians performed much of the work to prepare the shuttles between flights. The tasks included removing hardware from the most recent mission, making any needed repairs or modifications and installing equipment as well as some of the payloads scheduled for use during the next flight.

The Manned Spacecraft Operations Building was renovated to support preparing Space Shuttle hardware and payloads for launch in what was re-named the Operations and Checkout Building. In 2014, it was dedicated in honor of the first person to walk on the Moon as the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building. As was the case during Gemini and Apollo, it continued to be the location of the crew quarters for Space Shuttle astronauts and remains in that role today.

*The Space Shuttle Discovery thunders into orbit from Launch Complex 39B on Sept. 29, 1988. Photo credit: NASA*

Because the Space Shuttle would land like an aircraft, a three-mile-long Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, was built. On Feb. 11, 1984, the first orbiter to touch down on Kennedy’s runway was Challenger, landing after STS-41B.

The SLF included a Mate-De-mate Device. When a Space Shuttle landed anywhere other than Kennedy, it was ferried back to Florida, riding piggyback-style atop one of two modified Boeing 747 jetliners known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA. Following the touchdown at the SLF, the Mate-De-mate Device enabled crews to hoist the orbiter off the SCA and place it on the runway for towing to the Orbiter Processing Facility.

NASA managers and contractors celebrate the successful liftoff of the STS-4 mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia on June 27, 1982. In the foreground, from the left, George Page, NASA’s launch director for the first three missions, congratulates his successor, Al O’Hara. Kennedy Space Center Director Dick Smith watches with binoculars, next to Tom Utsman, director of Shuttle Technical Support and Hugh Harris, Kennedy’s News chief who provided countdown commentary. Photo credit: NASA

John Young and Bob Crippen flew the Space Shuttle Columbia for its maiden flight on April 12, 1981. During the program, shuttle crews deployed a variety of satellites, performed extended science missions, sent probes on their way to distant planets and placed the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit. On numerous occasions, satellites were serviced or repaired in orbit.

One of the shuttle’s most important achievements was its role in construction of the International Space Station. To support this effort, NASA built the Space Station Processing Facility, or SSPF, in 1992. In the building, flight hardware, modules, structural components were prepared for loading into the shuttle orbiters.

On the morning of Feb. 11, 1984, the Space Shuttle Challenger lands completing the STS-41B mission. It was the first orbiter to touch down on the Kennedy Space Center’s three-mile-long l Shuttle Landing Facility runway. — *On Feb. 11, 1984, the Space Shuttle Challenger lands completing the STS-41B mission. It was the first orbiter to touch down on the three-mile-long Shuttle Landing Facility runway. Photo credit: NASA*

“Our International Space Station has supported a wide portfolio of science and continues human presence on orbit for more than 20 years,” Petro said. “(The station) is enabling groundbreaking medical and technological research that not only impacts life here on Earth, but will pave the way for future human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.”

Following 135 flights over three decades, the Space Shuttle was retired following the landing of the orbiter Atlantis in July 2011.

In tests for future launch vehicles, Ares I-X was stacked in the VAB as the first-stage prototype and design concept demonstrator in the Ares I program. Using Space Shuttle solid rocket booster segments, it was considered as a launch system for human spaceflight developed by NASA and successfully launched Oct. 28, 2009.

Since completion of construction of the Vehicle Assembly Building in 1966, it has evolved as the site for processing of a variety of rockets. On the left, the first stage of the Apollo 10 Saturn V is lifted for stacking in 1968. In the center, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is lowered for mating to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters. Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and Test and Operations Support Contractor Jacobs lift a Space Launch System core stage, seen on the right. It will be placed on the mobile launcher between the two solid rocket boosters for the upcoming uncrewed Artemis 1 mission to fly around the Moon. Photo credit: NASA

Premier, Multi-User Spaceport

As the Space Shuttle Program was nearing completion, Kennedy’s then Director, Bob Cabana, and Petro, his deputy director, began developing a comprehensive vision to meet the emerging needs of both the civil and commercial space industries. Their innovative concept was for a multi-user spaceport. The plan called for NASA to partner with industry, remove unnecessary government oversight and allow commercial ventures to conduct operations using agency facilities and launch pads. During 2021, Cabana was appointed as the agency’s associate administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and was seceded by Petro.

To support launching elements of the International Space Station, NASA built the Space Station Processing Facility in 1992. In the building, flight hardware, modules, structural components are being prepared for loading into the Space Shuttle orbiters. Photo credit: NASA

Through agreements with the Department of Defense, Kennedy repurposed OPF 1 and 2 for support of the X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle. In 2015, the center signed a 30-year property agreement with Space Florida for the operations and management of the Launch and Landing Facility. With that, a variety of commercial and government partners all have access to use the three-mile long runway.

Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3 now is the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, where Boeing is preparing its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which will carry astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, left, and Bob Behnken exit the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020, in preparation for transport to Launch Complex 39A ahead of embarking on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

In 2014, NASA signed a property agreement with SpaceX for the use and operation of Launch Complex 39A, utilized during both the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs. The company’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets now lift off from the historic site. This includes sending astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft on extended missions aboard the International Space Station.

On May 30, 2020, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken lifted off Launch Complex 39A aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon. With the Demo-2 mission, the agency returned to launching crews from American soil to the International Space Station as part of the Commercial Crew program.

Now that the elements of the space station have been assembled, supplies to be ferried to the orbiting laboratory are prepared in the SSPF. Additionally, research into technologies necessary to support long-term operations on the Moon or during long spaceflights to destinations such as Mars are taking place in the space station building and the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building.

A Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew module is mated to a service module to form a complete spacecraft in Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: Boeing

Over the years, NASA Kennedy’s Launch Services Program has managed the liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station of Earth resources and weather satellites, as well as robotic probes exploring beyond Earth. During the 1970s, Viking landers to Mars and Voyager probes to planets in the outer solar system were launched. Notable missions more recently include the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto and the Mars 2020 mission with its Perseverance rover.

“Earth-facing satellites help better monitor climate, track dangerous storms and survey the planet’s surface,” Petro said. Additionally, “more than 250 robotic spacecraft have ventured into space since we began exploring beyond our atmosphere, each one teaching us a little more about our solar system and what lies beyond.”

The Age of Artemis

With commercial partners taking on the role of sending astronauts to low-Earth orbit, NASA now is concentrating on exploration of the Moon and beyond through the agency’s Artemis Program.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket rolls out of the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building on March 17, 2022 for the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission. The SLS and Orion spacecraft are designed to send astronauts to the Moon. Photo credit: SpaceAgeChronicle.com/Bob Granath

“This year, half a century after the last human stepped foot on the lunar surface, Kennedy is once again raising to meet another audacious goal – launching Artemis 1,” Petro said. “Through Artemis, the first woman and first person of color will step on the Moon and establish a long-term human presence that will serve as the proving ground for the science and technology that will pave the way for exploration of Mars.”

As part of NASA’s Artemis Program, the Orion spacecraft is designed to send crews to the Moon with the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, the Space Launch System. It is being prepared to achieve the goal of expanding human presence in deep space and enabling exploration of new destinations in the solar system.

To support the new spacecraft and rocket, Space Shuttle-era work platforms were removed from the VAB’s high bay 3 beginning in 2012 as a project of Kennedy Exploration Ground Systems. With the modifications, the building can now accommodate multiple launch vehicle types.

While the VAB was modified, starting in 2007 the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building’s high bay underwent an extensive renovation starting in 2007 to outfit the facility for the Orion spacecraft by its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Space. The refurbishment involved replacing the facility’s infrastructure and installing new overhead cranes to support manufacturing and assembly.

In the Material Science Laboratory of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, NASA chemical engineer Annie Meier adjusts the trash-to-gas reactor on March 7, 2014. She is helping develop the device to recycle trash during deep-space missions. Photo credit: NASA/Dan Casper

Additionally, SpaceX is building a new facility at Kennedy to support the company’s Starship/Super Heavy rocket. The fully reusable, “super-heavy-lift” launch vehicle is being developed to send the first commercial lander with astronauts to the Moon. The new vehicle is designed to send large payloads and astronauts to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars.

NASA’s SLS rocket will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft to dock with the Gateway small space station in lunar orbit. Two crewmembers will transfer to the SpaceX human landing system for the descent to the lunar surface. After approximately a week of exploration, they will return to Gateway in orbit for the trip back to Earth.

NASA’s collaboration with industry partners includes Blue Origin that has built a sprawling new complex to manufacture rockets. Kennedy played a pivotal role in their decision process, emphasizing the center’s flexible, business friendly environment that was established for its multi-user spaceport. The facility is located in Exploration Park just west of the center’s Industrial Area.

*This illustration depicts the HangarX site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center where SpaceX will support their Starship/Super Heavy rocket. Photo credit: SpaceX*

On Sept. 27, 2021, Terran Orbital announced plans to construct a 660,000 square foot Commercial Spacecraft and Constellation Facility at Kennedy. It will be the world’s largest satellite manufacturing facility. The new complex being built near the center’s Launch and Landing Facility will consist of 10 automated and augmented hangars capable of producing thousands of different types of space vehicles and electro-mechanical devices each year.

With NASA resuming flights of humans beyond low-Earth orbit, expanded commercial rocket launches and increased spaceflight activity, the result has been an economic resurgence on Florida’s Space Coast.

“With the growth of commercial launch capabilities, Kennedy has embarked on a new era of space exploration,” said Petro. “With more than 90 private-sector partners and nearly 250 partnership agreements, the presence of commercial companies at the multi-user spaceport is larger than ever before.”

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station are thriving as the nation’s premier multi-user spaceport, facilitating the largest concentration of space launch operators in the world. FPL indicates Florida Power and Light, and ULA is United Launch Alliance. Photo credit: NASA

Petro pointed with satisfaction to the accomplishments of the men and women who have contributed to 60 years of achievements at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the impact they have had on generations of Americans.

“NASA has turned science fiction into science fact, and every single mission launched from this center is intended to benefit life right here on Earth,” she said. “I think about the pride my dad must have felt as he helped land the first human on the Moon – that same pride I feel as I look around this center and see the incredible work that this team is doing to further the NASA legacy.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a four-part series recalling the history of America’s premier launch site. Following this article on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, check back on July 27, 2022. Part 4 will feature the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex — the nation’s window into operations at the Florida spaceport.