John F. Kennedy Space Center - NASA Kennedy Space Center

Images of Modern America

NASA

KENNEDY
SPACE CENTER

THREE DECADES OF US MANNED SPACE EXPLORATION ACHIEVEMENTS. From left to right are Apollo 11 mission patch, 1969; Skylab mission patch, 1970s; and space shuttle Columbia STS-1 mission patch, 1981. NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) served as the launch site for all of these historically significant space exploration missions. As of 2011, NASA KSC, located on Floridas scenic Merritt Island, employed a total of 13,100 workers, with 2,100 being federal government workers and the remainder being contractors. (All courtesy of NASA, Kennedy Space Center.)

ON THE FRONT COVER: Three days after his historic orbital spaceflight in Friendship 7, John Glenn and Pres. John F. Kennedy ride in a presidential motorcade driven by Cape Canaveral LC-14 for a nostalgic revisit. (Courtesy of NASA, Kennedy Space Center.)

UPPER BACK COVER: This is an inside view of the KSC Project Gemini Mission Control Center in 1964. (Courtesy of NASA, Kennedy Space Center.)

LOWER BACK COVER (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT): Apollo 11 key officials express joy and elation at the Launch Control Center at NASA KSC after a picture-perfect launch of the Apollo 11 Saturn V launch vehicle. Pictured from left to right are Charles W. Matthews, deputy associate administrator for manned spaceflight; Dr. Wernher von Braun, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center director; Dr. George E. Mueller, associate administrator for manned spaceflight; and Lt. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo program director. (Courtesy of NASA, Kennedy Space Center.) Gemini VIII command pilot Neil Armstrong (right) and pilot David Scott (left) are pictured in their space suits and gear in the White Room at Cape Canaveral LC-19, prior to boarding the Gemini VIII spacecraft to conduct a simulation test on March 11, 1966. (Courtesy of NASA, Kennedy Space Center.) This is a picture-perfect launch of Space Transportation System-1 (STS-1) from NASA KSC Pad 39A on April 12, 1981. (Courtesy of NASA.)

Images of Modern America

NASA

KENNEDY
SPACE CENTER

MARK A. CHAMBERS
FOREWORD BY MICHAEL CURIE

Copyright 2016 by Mark A. Chambers
ISBN 978-1-4671-1538-4
Ebook ISBN 9781439655740

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015946036

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This pictorial history is dedicated to the brave astronauts and workers of the NASA Kennedy Space Center whose dedication and hard work have rewarded mankind with the ultimate giftknowledge of the final frontier.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Mark Chambers has opened a very special door for you to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a place on Earth that truly is the gateway to the heavens. Kennedy Space Center is an amazing amalgamation of blue-collar bolt turners, rocket scientists, astronauts, and awesome machinery. On 140,000 acres shared with more than 500 species of wildlife, Kennedy Space Center turns dreams into destiny and humans into heroes.

I am privileged to go to work here every day. I live the dream! From my office window, I can look at the launchpads from which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin rocketed to the moon in 1969 and John Young and Bob Crippen flew to orbit on the very first space shuttle mission in 1981. I look at the Vehicle Assembly Building, a massive structure built to assemble the Apollo Saturn V rockets and modified to assemble the space shuttle orbiters to their external tank and solid rocket booster segments. I look at the Launch Control Center, where launch directors and their teams of engineers ensured 2.5 million parts of the space shuttle system were working correctly before every launch and, before that, launch directors verified Skylab and Apollo systems were ready for liftoff. Every man who walked on the Moon and every man and woman who worked aboard the space shuttle began their voyages from Launch Pads 39A and 39B at Kennedy.

Mark Chambers has captured the stories of the launchpads at Kennedy and the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which have lofted hundreds of humans into spacefrom Alan Shepard to the crew of space shuttle mission STS-135. He understands that NASA has not gone out of business. The gates at Kennedy are not closed. The space center is being prepared for the next generation of explorers who will launch aboard NASAs Orion spacecraft, atop the Space Launch System rocket, and aboard NASAs Commercial Crew Program partners Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Kennedy Space Center, as our Launch Services Program says, is Americas bridge to space. From here, NASA will begin its journey to Mars.

The Space Coast of Florida lives and breathes spaceflight, and Mark Chambers brings you onto the team and shares with you the excitement of Kennedy Space Center, from its beginnings through today. Welcome to Kennedy, and thank you for caring about this very special gateway to the heavens!

Michael Curie
NASA Kennedy Space Center news chief

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank several important individuals who contributed to this fascinating pictorial history of our nations greatest space exploration asset. I would like to thank my wife Lesa, daughter Caitlyn, and sons Patrick and Ryan for their constant support and patience with me in preparation of this book. I would also like to thank Michael Curie, NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center news chief, for writing his wonderful foreword for this book; and Elaine Liston, KSC archivist; Barbara Naylor, NASA Kennedy Space Center historic preservation officer; and Nancy English, cultural resources management specialist for reviewing the book.

As always, many thanks go to Holly Reed and the staff of the US National Archives at College Park, Maryland, Still Pictures Branch for photographic support for this project.

Special thanks also go to Emilia Monell of Arcadia Publishing for securing publication of this work and to Jesse Darland of Arcadia Publishing for his invaluable editorial assistance and fantastic support for this project.

INTRODUCTION

For over half a century, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (KSC), located on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, with several facilities on Cape Canaveral, Florida, has served as Americas primary portal to the heavens. KSC has served as the launch site for nearly all of Americas unprecedented and historic space projects and programs, including the nations first manned space missions that served as technological stepping stones to the ultimate goal: the technological triumph of successfully landing a man on the Moon. KSC has also served as the launch site for pioneering unmanned space programs, such as the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 deep space exploration programs, that are enabling us to explore and better understand our universe. Other historic unmanned interplanetary exploration programs have also been launched from KSC, including the Viking program of the latter 1970s, which enabled us to study the planet Mars for the first time, and the Cassini-Huygens program of the 2000s, which is still providing us with data and images of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, and their numerous moons. Following the termination of the Apollo program, KSC launched elements of space stationsSkylab during the mid-1970s and the International Space Station (ISS) during the latter 1990s and into the middle of the first decade of the 2000sand a new space vehicle that could fly in space like an airplane, the Space Transportation System (STS), a space shuttle Orbiter mounted atop a huge external fuel tank that had a solid rocket booster (SRB) attached on both sides. Much like the earlier American manned space programs, the space station and shuttle programs proved to be highly successful.