On Aug. 14, 2017, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It was a commercial resupply mission delivering supplies to the International Space Station. Four days later, the agency’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M lifted off on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
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.
Another diverse crew of astronauts has launched from NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center for an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft streaked into the night sky atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Florida Spaceport.
After more than six months aboard the International Space Station, the Crew 2 astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida at 10:33 p.m. EST on Nov. 8, 2021. Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA were aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft with Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet of France.
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.
The Space Shuttle era was one of superlatives. Everything was bigger than life. The factoids associated with the program are examples of the historic size, capabilities and achievements of the shuttle and the team that made their achievements possible.
“I tell ya from up here the world is round. It is spectacular. It’s fantastic,” said Gemini XI command pilot Pete Conrad as he and pilot Dick Gordon looked down from their lofty vantage point. Their record-shattering altitude of 850 miles above the Earth was only one highlight of a demanding, three-day mission in September 1966 – 55 years ago.
During the summer of 1971, 50 years ago, three astronauts made the most of three days on the Moon’s surface and in lunar orbit. With the opportunity for more detailed exploration and the addition of “dune buggy”-like transportation, Apollo 15 was the most complex flight to date.
The International Space Station has been in operation with research ongoing since Nov. 2, 2000. America’s first space station was Skylab. Launched 48 years ago, it was a complex orbiting scientific laboratory that helped pave the way for permanent operations in low-Earth orbit. It was a program of unparalleled scientific scope that continues to yield highly valuable information about the universe and life within it.
According to an ancient Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” NASA is preparing to return astronauts to the Moon followed by exploration of Mars, a planet that is 121 million miles from Earth. Those journeys began 60 years ago with a single, 116-mile “step” into space by Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961.