![1960s space age 1960s space age](https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/0a3/c6b/207df469ba6dfd1065a53c15c7fd116c74-courreges-006.rdeep-vertical.w768.jpg)
President Kennedy said Americans would go to the moon before the end of the decade, and although he didn't live to see that proclamation fulfilled, the Apollo Program rapidly took shape.
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With the last Gemini mission in 1966, the stage was set for the final march to the moon. Kennedy's Headquarters and Central Instrumentation Facility were built nearby to house the growing workforce at the center. A crawler-transporter was built to carry the towering moonbound rockets along the gravel path.įurther south, the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building, now known as the Operations and Checkout Building, was constructed in 1964 in what became known as the Industrial Area. Launch pads A and B were constructed, with a crawlerway to serve as the highway between the VAB and the pads. The gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building began to take shape in 1962 and was completed in 1965. While Mercury and Gemini launches lifted off from pads on Cape Canaveral, NASA was building its own moon launch facility, Launch Complex 39, to support the mighty Saturn V rocket. 29, 1963, just five days after the assassination of the president who set the moon as NASA's goal, the center was renamed the John F. The Gemini missions established their own astounding set of firsts, introducing pioneering spacewalks and spacecraft dockings - revolutionary new feats as astronauts were quickly learning to live and work, and even troubleshoot, in space.ĭuring this time, the infrastructure of the Launch Operations Center took shape as preparations for the lunar missions continued, but the name of the center changed after a tragic turn of events. The first crew flew aboard Gemini 3 on March 23, 1965, lifting off on a Titan rocket from Launch Complex 19. Following closely behind were Project Gemini's 10 missions, with crews of two, aboard Atlas and Titan launch vehicles. Throughout the course of two years, Project Mercury had six successful launches of solo astronauts aboard Redstone and Atlas rockets.
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On July 1, 1962, the launch facility was given full center status as the Launch Operations Center with Debus as its first director. Debus, was an arm of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. 20, 1962, John Glenn lifted off from Launch Complex 14 aboard an Atlas rocket to become the first American to orbit Earth.Īmerica had a new set of heroes - the Mercury 7 astronauts.ĭuring these early days, the Launch Operations Directorate in Florida, under the leadership of Dr. Project Mercury already was under way, having launched the first American, Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight - just a few weeks before the president's bold proclamation. 1 song of the year was the instrumental "Theme from a Summer Place" by Percy Faith, and the two-year-old space agency was launching rockets along the east coast of Florida. Neil Armstrong's "one small step" on the lunar surface in 1969 achieved a goal that sounded like science fiction just a few years earlier.Īs the decade dawned in 1960, gas cost 31 cents per gallon, the No. The goal - fueled by competition with the Soviet Union dubbed the "space race" - took what was to become Kennedy Space Center from a testing ground for new rockets to a center successful at launching humans to the moon. Kennedy before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, set the stage for an astounding time in our nation's emerging space program. "First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth." Image above: Inside the Launch Control Center, personnel watch as the Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 11 astronauts lifts off the launch pad on July 16, 1969. Aldrin, Jr., from the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building to the transfer van for the eight-mile trip to Pad 39A. Armstrong leads astronauts Michael Collins and Edwin E. Image above: On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 Commander Neil A. 14, 1966, the towering Saturn V rocket rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building and heads for Launch Pad 39A. Image above: In August 1965, the massive Vehicle Assembly Building was under construction.
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Image above: On Sept 10, 1962, a prelaunch simulation for the Sigma 7/Mercury-Atlas 8 launch of astronaut Wally Schirra was held in the Flight Control area in Mercury Mission Control. Kennedy is welcomed by a color guard and Center Director Kurt Debus (right). Image above: After arriving at the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex Skid Strip on Sept.