KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
CELEBRATES 60 YEARS
SUMMER 2022: 1 7
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
CELEBRATES 60 YEARS
It happened 60 years ago come July 1. Merritt Island was
officially designated the U.S. space program’s Launch
Operations Center — which a year later would become
known as the Kennedy Space Center — under NASA. While
the Air Force had been performing test missile operations
at Cape Canaveral since the 1950s, launch operations had
been run under the Marshall Flight Center in Huntsville.
The new designation of Launch Operations Center made
nearby Merritt Island the primary launch center of human
spaceflight and at the center of the U.S. space program. The
July 1, 1962, designation had been taken under President John
F. Kennedy’s goal announced a year earlier of landing men on
the moon by 1970. Seven days after Kennedy’s assassination,
President Lyndon Johnson designated the LOC as the John
F. Kennedy Space Center, where the Apollo program would
achieve the goal of landing man on the moon and where the
skylab and space shuttle programs would be launched. Today,
the center, which consists of about 700 buildings grouped
across 144,000 acres, continues to serve as the primary launch
site for robotic and commercial crew missions. The acreage
also includes the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge,
a habitat for more than 150 species of plants and animals.
NASA is on track for 65 launches on the Space Coast in 2022.
During its six decades, the Kennedy Space Center has created
a thriving economy focused on research and development in
aeronautics in what today is widely known as the Space Coast.
NASA estimates its impact on Florida at $5.2 billion annually,
with the agency employing 12,000 people. KSC affects every
aspect of the Brevard economy, from the hospitality industry
and its popular Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center to the
many high-tech space contracts that have set up operations
in Brevard. The Kennedy Space Center also remains a source
of identity and pride for Brevard, with everything from a sitcom
in the 1960s featuring early fictional astronauts to the
creation in 1999 of the 321 area code, a salute to the familiar
Space Coast launch countdown.
321 CELEBRATE KSC’s 60th
The Kennedy Space Center is celebrating its diamond anniversary July 1 and 2
with family-friendly and special activities at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor
Complex. The celebration includes a DJ spinning tunes from the 1960s to today
and a daily comedy act at 1, 2, 3 and 4 p.m. Kennedy Space Center: A History will
be presented at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily in the Journey to Mars attraction. Prizes
will be awarded throughout the day and signature pins will be available while
supplies last. The celebration is included with daily admission to the complex.
NASA
The Vehicle Assembly
Building is one of the
iconic structures at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center.