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.
For more than a decade, NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour has been the star attraction at the California Science Center. During that time, more than 18 million guests at the West Coast museum have learned about the Space Shuttle Program’s legacy. After 25 flights to space during the first 20 years of its career, Endeavour departed the agency’s Kennedy Space Center soon arriving at its new home beginning an ongoing role educating and encouraging explorers of tomorrow.
Capped by the highly successful Artemis I mission, 2022 was a landmark year for NASA. Groundbreaking research continued in Earth orbit, a new human-rated spacecraft circled the Moon, robotic exploration of Mars reached important milestones and the agency’s newest telescope revealed never-before seen images of the universe.
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.
Well before the final Space Shuttle touched down in 2011, the burgeoning commercial space industry was expressing interest in expanding business pursuits in space. At the same time, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center found itself in a unique position. For over 30 years most of the center’s resources were dedicated for the expressed purpose of supporting the Space Shuttle Program. Now Kennedy was left with excess facilities and capacity with no program requirements or funding.
On Sept. 16, 2021, SpaceX launched its Inspiration4 mission with four civilian crewmembers. It was the company’s first fully private flight sending humans to orbit. It was an example of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center serving as a premier multi-user spaceport, supporting an ever-expanding commercial industry, providing transportation to space for both people and cargo.
“Liftoff of Discovery with a crew of six astronaut heroes and one American legend,” said launch commentator Lisa Malone of NASA Public Affairs as the Space Shuttle mission STS-95 flew into orbit on Oct. 29, 1998. While it was a flight in the late 1990s, it was reminiscent of NASA’s storied past. An international crew lifted off with John Glenn, a member of the Mercury program’s Original Seven astronauts.
When John F. Kennedy was sworn in as president in 1961, he promised to reach for a “New Frontier.” Attention abroad concentrated on the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Closer to home, there was increasing unrest among those who were being left behind simply because of their race. America’s space agency soon would be thrust into the forefront of both issues.
NASA’s spacecraft designed to return astronauts to the Moon recently reached a major milestone in preparations for its first flight atop the world’s largest rocket, the Space Launch System. The Orion capsule for the agency’s Artemis I mission moved from the manufacturing and assembly stage to processing for flight. This is one of the latest steps forward for the program that will take the first woman and next man to the lunar surface.
The skies over Florida’s Space Coast lit up as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center sending four astronauts to the International Space Station. After they arrive, the orbiting laboratory will be staffed for the first time by seven astronauts and cosmonauts increasing the amount of time available for research and additional opportunities for discoveries.