Over 50 years ago, NASA began building launch pads and towers on Florida's east coast. By 1960, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center adopted as an extension this "Missile Firing Laboratory." On July 1, 1962, NASA officially activated the Launch Operations Center at the seaside spaceport. The following year, the center underwent a name change to honor the president who put America on the path to the moon. NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center has served as the launch site for every American manned mission and hundreds of advanced scientific spacecraft.
Today, following the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, facilities at the space center remain open to visitors. In addition, newer attractions continue to be added, including the forthcoming unveiling of Shuttle Atlantis, the "Shuttle Experience" simulator, and the Angry Birds Space Encounter exhibit. See pictures of this historic site in this gallery.
In this photo, a T-38 plane banks over Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the crew arrives for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test for STS-130. Image released April 20, 2011.
The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) undergoes construction in early 1965 at Kennedy Space Center, with the Launch Control Center (LCC) and Service Towers viewed from across the Turning Basin. The largest one-story building in the world, it housed Saturn V rocket assembly activities, later converted to space shuttle procedures.
This aerial view of Launch Complex 14 (LC-14) at Cape Canaveral, adjacent to Kennedy Space Center, was taken in 1963. Mercury-Atlas 9 stands ready to blast off on May 15, 1963.
NASA launched the Gemini 5 spacecraft, August 21, 1965 at 0900 EST on a planned eight-day mission from Launch Complex 19, Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, adjacent to Kennedy Space Center. Astronaut Gordon Cooper was the command pilot and Charles Conrad the pilot. This was the longest manned spaceflight at the time.
In the shadow of the massive Vehicle Assembly Building (under construction at right) the Launch Control Center nears completion at Kennedy Space Center in February 1965.
The Saturn V 500F rocket rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on May 25, 1966 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Dr. Wernher von Braun (center) describes the Saturn Launch System to President John F. Kennedy (right, pointing). NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans stands to the left of von Braun. Cape Canaveral is the location of both Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center.
The giant Saturn V rocket for the Apollo 4 mission at the Kennedy Space Center's launch complex 39A stands at the dawn of November 8, 1967, during the pre-launch alert. Rockets of this type launched astronauts to the moon during the Apollo Program.
The Apollo 4 (Spacecraft 017/Saturn 501) space mission was launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Nov. 9, 1967. The first launch from Kennedy of the giant Saturn 5 rocket paved the way for flights of Apollo astronauts to the moon.
The Apollo 11 mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on July 16, 1969, bearing the first humans to walk on the moon.
The space shuttle Columbia is pictured on the launch pad prior to the launch of the STS-1 mission – the maiden flight of NASA's space shuttle program. Columbia is showered in lights on the pad, in preparation for a Flight Readiness Firing of its main engines. Columbia lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 12, 1981.
Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been opened to the public for tours.
The first space shuttle mission, STS-1, launched on April 12, 1981, from Kennedy Space Center, with astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen on board space shuttle Columbia.
A Gemini-Titan rocket rejoined the other mighty machines displayed in the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida on Sept. 22, 2010.
The memorial service on the tenth anniversary of the Columbia tragedy took place at the Space Mirror Memorial, NASA's Kennedy Space Center, FLA.
An artist renders the “simulation briefing” room of the Shuttle Launch Experience, an launch simulator attraction being built at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Atlantis is towed from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) before being put on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Space shuttle Atlantis, seen here after being lifted and tilted inside its new $100 million exhibit facility at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida
The steel skeleton for the "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit's entranceway solid rocket boosters begins to rise off the ground at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.
The new logo for the "Space Shuttle Atlantis" exhibit is unveiled by astronaut Jon McBride (left), Delaware North President Rick Abramson and Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida on Feb. 21, 2013.
Cranes remove a full-size, 149-foot-long, space shuttle solid rocket booster, or SRB, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida to make way for a new exhibit featuring space shuttle Atlantis, which is currently undergoing preparations to go on public display.
Since entering its six-story exhibit building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida in November 2012, space shuttle Atlantis has been raised off the ground, shrink-wrapped in 16,000 square feet of plastic and tilted 43 degrees, the latter designed to give guests a view of what the shuttle looked like to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Wide-angle view looking down the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Beginning Nov. 1, 2011, the public will again be allowed in the VAB after more than 30 years being closed to general tours.
The Launch Control Center (LCC) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is now being opened for public tours for the first time in more than 30 years.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, NASA astronaut Don Pettit stands near the entrance to the newest visitor attraction, Angry Birds Space Encounter, during the grand opening ceremony. Image released March 22, 2013.
