Idea of lunar landing launched KSC
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
CELEBRATES 60 YEARS 16: SPACE COAST LIVING | SPACECOASTLIVING.COM
Setting the goal and accomplishing the mission
July 29, 1958 – President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signs the bill that establishes
the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
Aug. 19, 1958 – T. Keith Glennan is sworn in
as the first administrator of NASA.
Oct. 1, 1958 – NASA begins operations with
the mission to perform civilian research related
to space flight and aeronautics.
May 25, 1961 – President
John F. Kennedy
announces before a joint
session of Congress
his ambitious goal of
sending an American to
the moon before the end
of the decade.
Sept. 1, 1961 – NASA requests funding to
acquire 80,000 acres for land purchases on
Merritt Island to support the Apollo Lunar
Landing program on land that would eventually
become the Kennedy Space Center.
July 1, 1962
– NASA activates its Launch
Operations Center, now known as
Kennedy Space Center, on North
Merritt Island, creating the stage
for U.S. efforts in human space
exploration. The activation gives the
site, previously under the control
of NASA’s Marshall Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., equal status with
other agency field centers. Kurt
Debus, a German rocket scientist and
launch operations leader for Wernher
von Braun, is the first center director.
Sept. 12, 1962 – In a speech in Rice Stadium
that was intended to get the American people
to support the Apollo program, President Kennedy
declares, “We choose to go to the moon in
this decade and do the other things not because
they are easy, but because they are hard.’’
July 1963 – Construction of the 525-foottall
Vehicle Assembly Building begins.
Nov. 29, 1963 – Seven days after President
Kennedy’s assasination, President Lyndon
Johnson designates the Launch Operations
Center and Station No. 1 of the Atlantic Missile
Range as the John F. Kennedy Space Center. The
Air Force subsequently changes the name of
the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex to Cape
Kennedy Air Force Station.
Fall 1964 –The Operations and Checkout
Building is opened and is used to test Apollo
spacecraft.
May 26, 1965 – NASA’s Kennedy Space
Center Headquarters building, administrative
center for all spaceport activities and the center
director’s office, formally opens.
Jan. 27, 1967 – In a practice countdown for
the first piloted Apollo test flight, Gus Grissom,
Ed White and Roger Chafee are killed when a
fire sweeps through their Apollo spacecraft high
atop a Saturn 1B rocket and Launch Complex 34.
Oct. 11, 1968 – NASA astronauts Wally Shirra,
Walt Cunningham and Donn Eisel blast off from
Cape Kennedy on Apollo 7 in the first manned
Apollo test flight.
Dec. 21, 1968 – Astronauts Frank Borman,
Jim Lovell and William Anders blast off on the
Apollo 8 mission in the first manned launch
from Kennedy Space Center and the first human
expedition beyond Earth’s orbit.
July 16, 1969 – Apollo 11 launches from
Cape Kennedy, carrying Commander Neil Armstrong,
Command Module pilot Michael Collins
and Lunar Module pilot Edwin “Buzz’ Aldrin.
July 20, 1969 – Armstrong, Aldrin and
Collins become the first humans to ever land on
the moon. About 6 ½ hours
later, Armstrong becomes
the first person to walk on
the moon. An estimated
650 million watch on television
as he takes his first
step, saying “That’s one
small step for a man, one
giant leap for mankind.”
NASA PHOTOS
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