Kennedy Space Center

NASA's main launch site, from which the Apollo Moon missions and Space Shuttles lifted off.

The center covers about 144,000 acres (580 square kilometers) and has roughly 700 buildings and facilities. It was first named the NASA Launch Operations Center and was later renamed for President John F. Kennedy, who set the goal of landing people on the Moon. There is also a Visitor Complex that is open to the public.

How it began

Military teams had launched rockets at nearby Cape Canaveral since 1949. In 1961 President Kennedy asked for a crewed Moon landing by 1970. The huge Saturn V rocket, 111 metres tall, needed a bigger place than the Cape, so NASA bought land on Merritt Island, much of it citrus groves. Some farmers were allowed to keep picking fruit until 1964. A week after Kennedy's death in 1963, the site was renamed in his honor.

Giant buildings and long runways

The Vehicle Assembly Building is 160 meters tall and was built for stacking NASA's largest rockets. The Launch Control Center runs the launches. The Operations and Checkout Building holds the astronauts' dormitories and suit-up area. The Shuttle Landing Facility is a runway 4.8 kilometers long, long enough for returning spaceplanes.

More than NASA

Since 2010 the center has worked to become a spaceport used by many partners, and a new launch pad, LC-39C, was added in 2015. Besides large rockets, it manages robotic and commercial crew missions, and its scientists study how to grow food and use local resources for future trips away from Earth.

On the globe

The model shows the huge assembly building and launch facilities at NASA's Florida spaceport.