Kennedy space center, Florida.
Length: 4:35
Description: From our trip around Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana. November 2002.
The announcement of the lunar program led to an expansion of operations from the Cape to the adjacent Merritt Island. NASA began acquisition in 1962, taking title to 131 square miles (340 km²) by outright purchase and negotiating with the state of Florida for an additional 87 square miles (230 km²). In July 1962, the site was named the Launch Operations Center. It was renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center in November 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (The surrounding Cape Canaveral was also renamed Cape Kennedy, but this change was unpopular with local residents and the cape reverted to the original name in 1973.)
KSC is now the launch site for the Space Shuttle, reusing the Complex 39 Apollo infrastructure. The first launch was of Columbia on April 12, 1981. KSC also has a landing site for the orbiter, the 2.9 mile (4.6 km) Shuttle Landing Facility. However, the first end-of-mission Shuttle landing at KSC did not take place until February 11, 1984, when Challenger completed STS-41-B; the primary landing site had until that time been Edwards Air Force Base in California. Twenty-five flights had been completed by September 1988, with a large hiatus from January 28, 1986, to September 29, 1988, following the Challenger disaster (which was the first shuttle launch from Pad 39B).
In September 2004, parts of Kennedy Space Center were damaged by Hurricane Frances. The Vehicle Assembly Building lost 1,000 exterior panels, each 3.9 x 9.8 ft (approx. 1.2 x 3.0 m) in size. This exposed 39,800 sq ft (3,700 m²) of the building to the elements. Damage occurred to the south and east sides of the VAB. The Space Shuttle tile manufacturing facility suffered extensive damage. The roof was partially torn off and the interior suffered extensive water damage. Tile manufacturing will probably be moved to the Palmdale, California backup facility. Further damage to KSC was caused by Hurricane Wilma in October 2005.
In the future, Kennedy Space Center will be the launch site for the Ares I and Ares V rockets, which carry the Orion spacecraft
Author: vladamikulec
Source: YouTube
