During 2023, 72 rockets launched into the skies regularly rumbling windows along Florida’s Space Coast proving, again, that NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station have been established as America’s premier multi-user spaceport. The new record shattered the previous number set only last year during which 57 rockets lifted off.
Each year during mid-July, space historians celebrate one of the most momentous events of the 20th Century. For the first time, humans left Earth to land on the Moon. Many nations around the world have extensively celebrated the mission of Apollo 11 on postage stamps. In the United States, the most iconic commemoratives include works of art by a father and son team – Paul and Chris Calle.
With the beginning of Project Mercury, NASA initiated efforts to stress the new program was more than hardware. Rockets and spacecraft had been launching from Cape Canaveral for the better part of a decade. The new flight safety emphasis focused on missions including people. The purpose was simple, but crucial. Everyone involved in human spaceflight plays a role in flight safety and mission success.
When retired Kennedy Space Center engineer and NASA astronaut Nicole Stott spoke to spaceport employees in 2015, she encouraged women at the center to take full advantage of expanding opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds. Women now are filling some of the most crucial roles in the agency’s Artemis Program. That effort is designed to establish long-term lunar science and exploration capabilities on the Moon and inspire the next generation of explorers.
When NASA’s Kennedy Space Center became operational in the summer of 1962, very few woman held jobs beyond secretarial or housekeeping positions. Today, they serve in leadership posts, engineering jobs and other key roles alongside their male counterparts. Retired spaceport engineer and NASA astronaut Nicole Stott spoke to employees at the Florida spaceport inspiring women to take full advantages of opportunities now offered.
Hugh Harris, a former director of Public Affairs at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, died Feb. 14, 2023 at the age of 90. He worked in increasingly responsible roles for the space agency from 1963 until his retirement in 1998. Harris was known as the “Voice of NASA” for early Space Shuttle missions, but his career covered much more.
A group of underwater explorers works to preserve America’s heritage. According to team member Erik Denson, during a week in the summer of 2015, one memorable effort was a “mission of a lifetime.” A NASA engineer at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, Denson and a small team of underwater divers help maintain the history of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Hurricane Ian is bearing down on Florida’s west coast with its track crossing the state from the Gulf of Mexico making landfall near Fort Myers as a category 4 or 5 storm. It is forecast to move northeast toward the state’s east coast, including Brevard County and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Imagery from NASA-launched GOES satellites and the International Space Station are aiding meteorologists in helping people across the state prepare for the storm’s impact. GOES weather satellites are launched by NASA and operated by NOAA.
n the summer of 1966, America’s space program raced forward with Gemini flights in Earth orbit while new facilities were built to meet President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon. During that time, NASA provided an opportunity to view work going on inside the gates of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. In years to come, the visitor complex became one of the premier attractions in Florida.
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.