Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Facts About NASA Kennedy Space Center
Overview: The John F. Kennedy Space Center is primarily a functioning NASA base of operations, where rockets are both launched and monitored. Most famously it is the launching site for the Apollo moon missions and the space shuttles. The Kennedy Space Center's secondary function is as a public education facility, with exhibits and displays about the history of space flight and travel.
History: NASA was founded by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 and the NASA Launch Operations Center in east Florida was opened in 1962. This facility was later renamed in honor of President Kennedy, who set America on the path to land on the moon. Every manned mission to space has departed from this facility. In addition, the facility was the site of the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Rover project, and New Horizons, the first spacecraft to visit Pluto. In 2001, ground was broken on the Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory (SERPL), since renamed the Space Life Sciences Lab. This is a collaboration between NASA and the State of Florida dedicated to development and processing of experiments for the International Space Station.
Exhibits: The Kennedy Space Center's numerous exhibits are dedicated to enhancing the public's understanding and appreciation of space flight. These include IMAX films which put the audience in the middle of a rocket launch and on a space walk with an astronaut, as well as numerous interactive exhibits and the Apollo/Saturn V Center. This last exhibit is a separate facility that holds an original Saturn V rocket and brings the story of America's journey to the moon to life. Other attractions include the astronaut encounter, where a NASA astronaut answers questions and talks about his experiences, the 360-degree shuttle launch platform observation gantry, a memorial to fallen astronauts and the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
Overview: The John F. Kennedy Space Center is primarily a functioning NASA base of operations, where rockets are both launched and monitored. Most famously it is the launching site for the Apollo moon missions and the space shuttles. The Kennedy Space Center's secondary function is as a public education facility, with exhibits and displays about the history of space flight and travel.
History: NASA was founded by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 and the NASA Launch Operations Center in east Florida was opened in 1962. This facility was later renamed in honor of President Kennedy, who set America on the path to land on the moon. Every manned mission to space has departed from this facility. In addition, the facility was the site of the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Rover project, and New Horizons, the first spacecraft to visit Pluto. In 2001, ground was broken on the Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory (SERPL), since renamed the Space Life Sciences Lab. This is a collaboration between NASA and the State of Florida dedicated to development and processing of experiments for the International Space Station.
Exhibits: The Kennedy Space Center's numerous exhibits are dedicated to enhancing the public's understanding and appreciation of space flight. These include IMAX films which put the audience in the middle of a rocket launch and on a space walk with an astronaut, as well as numerous interactive exhibits and the Apollo/Saturn V Center. This last exhibit is a separate facility that holds an original Saturn V rocket and brings the story of America's journey to the moon to life. Other attractions include the astronaut encounter, where a NASA astronaut answers questions and talks about his experiences, the 360-degree shuttle launch platform observation gantry, a memorial to fallen astronauts and the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
http://traveltips.usatoday.com/nasa-kennedy-space-center-4511.html
Kennedy Space Center
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NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
InformationBy Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | September 20, 2012 06:44pm ET
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has long served as America's spaceport, hosting all of the federal government's manned spaceflights since the late 1960s.
KSC is named after President John F. Kennedy, who famously declared in 1961 that the United States would put an astronaut on the moon, and bring that person safely back to Earth, before the end of the decade.
KSC was pivotal to that bold effort, which ultimately succeeded when Neil Armstrongand his two Apollo 11 crewmates splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. Apollo 11 launched from KSC, as did all subsequent flights in the Apollo program, and every one of the space shuttle's 135 missions.
But the end of the shuttle program in July 2011 brought big changes to the Florida center, which has seen its workforce fall to 8,500 employees from 15,000 about 15 years earlier. Here are some basic facts about KSC, its storied past and where the center is headed in the future.