Orbiter Processing Facility

Endeavour in Leading Role to Educate, Inspire Future Explorers

By Bob Granath | July 10, 2023

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.

First Space Shuttle Mission Started America ‘Dreaming Again’

By Bob Granath | April 14, 2023

“Six, five, four, we’ve gone for main engine start and we have liftoff of America’s first Space Shuttle,” said NASA launch commentator Hugh Harris as more than a decade of development culminated with the dawn of a new era of spaceflight. John Young and Bob Crippen lifted off aboard Columbia on April 12, 1981. The Space Shuttle was an idea born in the closing days of the 1960s race to the Moon. The concept had many technological hurdles to overcome. After numerous delays, it became a triumph of American technology and engineering.

Women Taking Advantage of Diverse Opportunities at NASA

By Bob Granath | March 28, 2023

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.

Kennedy Space Center: Celebrating 60 Years of Launching the Future

By Bob Granath | July 20, 2022

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.

Space Shuttle Team Overcomes Challenges to Christen Orbiter

By Bob Granath | January 19, 2022

From the time the Space Shuttle Discovery first arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, preparations for the spacecraft’s maiden voyage poised many challenges for the team at the Florida spaceport. In spite of these issues, the new orbiter went on to fly a highly successful initial mission. Altogether, Discovery flew 39 times becoming the workhorse of the five-orbiter fleet.

Premier Multi-User Spaceport is Home to Diverse Activities

By Bob Granath | December 7, 2021

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.

New Vision Ignited Commercial Revolution at Florida’s Spaceport

By Bob Granath | November 17, 2021

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.

Elite Team Managed Shuttle’s Controls During Ground Ops

By Bob Granath | March 30, 2021

From the Space Shuttle’s first flight in 1981 to its final mission in 2011, thousands of professionals made the program a technical marvel. On the front line were highly skilled mechanics, technicians and engineers whose innovative work launched landmark missions such as deployment of the Space Telescope and assembly of the Space Station. For one elite group of spacecraft operators, their workstation was the space program’s “inner sanctum” — the shuttle’s crew modules.

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