Kennedy Space Center

Understand

The Kennedy Space Center was formed under Marshall Space Flight Center in December 1959. It was known as Launch Operations Directorate. Due to the expansions necessary for crewed Moon landing missions, on July 1, 1962, Launch Operations Directorate became a separate entity known as Launch Operations Center (LOC). Major buildings of LOC's industrial area were designed by architect Charles Luckman.

The LOC was renamed the Kennedy Space Center on November 29, 1963 to honor the President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated seven days earlier.

The Kennedy Space Center hosted several human spaceflight programs. Apollo 11 was launched on July 11, 1969 from the KSC to land two men on the Moon. Skylab, the first space station of the United States, was also launched from the KSC in 1973, followed by four crewed missions.

The KSC was converted for Space Shuttles in 1970s. The first Shuttle launch took place in 1981 from KSC, followed by 132 successful missions, with two great disasters. The last flight of Space Shuttle was debut in 2011 from KSC.

Most components to build the International Space Station, the current habitable artificial satellite, were launched from KSC, starting from 1998. Those components are manufactured from Space Station Processing Facility in KSC.

Until 2017, rocket launches from the KSC were exclusively operated by NASA, a government space agency. Since then, the rocket launches are mainly operated by SpaceX, a private company, while NASA occasionally launching their rockets as part of the Artemis program.

Kennedy Space Center should be distinguished with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), a military installation operated by United States Space Force (USSF), a military agency.

Get in

By car

• Courtney Pkwy serves as a main north-south road through Kennedy Space Center complex to SR-A1A/528 in Cape Canaveral near the Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach bridge from SR-405 (see below). SR-A1A become SR-528 in Cocoa Beach.
• to - State Route (SR) 50 is an east-west road connects Titusville (North Brevard) to Orlando. SR-405 goes across Kennedy Space Center as NASA Pkwy which goes towards SR-50 through Titusville via Kennedy Causeway Bridge from the Kennedy Space Center region.
• (I-95) - runs north south all the way up the east coast of the USA. In Brevard it is west of most developed areas, but a great uncongested way to get from one end of the county to another, or to access major east-west highways. From I-95 go east on SR-50 to 405 from Exit 215 or SR-528 to A1A from Exit 205 to reach the Kennedy Space Center.
• (U.S. 1) - again, runs all the way up the east coast of the USA. However, this is a busy city road with lots of stoplights and traffic (however, in between the south, central and north areas of the county it is a convenient drive).

Unlike in some other cities, if you don't have a car, an Uber will be willing to take you, even though it is well outside Orlando. Taxis will not take you though.

By bus

There appears to be no public transportation service to the Kennedy Space Center.

However, many companies offer organized bus day tours from the Orlando area to KSC, such as City Sightseeing Orlando or Gray Line Orlando

Get around

There are charging stations for electric vehicles inside the paid parking area for Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Go next

Kennedy Space Center is one of a number of preserved and protected areas surrounding Cape Canaveral. Immediately to the east is Cape Canaveral and to the north is the Canaveral National Seashore. The protected areas are used as a buffer zone during rocket launches.

• Baikonur - The Russian equivalent launch site.
• Space - KSC is a gateway to low Earth orbit and beyond, although extremely expensive.
• Moon - People travel to the Moon from this launch site.