KSC Launch Complex 39

All of the Apollo missions to the moon and all of the Space Shuttle missions were launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. Nancy and I visited Kennedy Space Center (KSC) today. The aerial photo above (source) shows the large Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in the center and Launch Complex 39 (LC-39) at the top, consisting of two launch pads: LC-39A on the right and LC-39B on the left. The photo is looking northeast and at the very top is the Atlantic Ocean.

Below is a map of KSC and the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (source). The VAB is indicated by the red circle, and LC-39A and LC-39B are indicated by red arrows. (Click on any image or photo to enlarge.) LC-39A is three miles from the VAB to give you an idea of scale. Why so far? To reduce the risk of damage to the VAB if a rocket should explode on the launch pad, which thankfully never happened.

The photo below shows the VAB from our bus tour today:

This huge building, 525 feet tall and a single story inside, was used to assemble the Saturn V rocket for Apollo missions and to attach the Space Shuttle to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters.

The assembled space vehicle was transported from the VAB to either LC-39A or LC-39B by a crawler-transporter on the crawlerway. The crawlerway is clearly visible in the photo at the top of this post. Our bus drove by a crawler-transporter, but of course there was no space vehicle on it:

The last Apollo mission was Apollo 17 in 1971. A total of 135 Space Shuttle missions were launched from 1981 to 2011, when the program ended. (Here are links to lists of Apollo missions and Space Shuttle missions.) Between the Apollo missions and the Space Shuttle missions, LC-39 was used to launch Skylab missions in 1973 and the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.

Our bus tour stopped at an observation point between LC-39A and LC-39B. The photo below shows LC-39B (in the distance), with a sign in the foreground showing the Apollo and Space Shuttle missions launched from there. LC-39B looks quite bare, and there is nothing substantive going on there at present.

The photo below shows LC-39A (in the distance) from the same observation point:

There is something presently going on at LC-39A. Below is a closer view taken from a different angle (from the bus):

In 2014 SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for LC-39A. SpaceX has launched its Falcon rocket from other locations, and is preparing for its first launch from LC-39A in February 2017. SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002.

Take a closer look at the signs above showing the Apollo and Space Shuttle missions launched from LC-39A and LC-39B. The sign for 39A shows a Saturn V rocket on the left and a Space Shuttle on the right. Note how much larger the Saturn V rocket is. The sign for 39B shows a Saturn IB rocket on the left and a Space Shuttle on the right. The Saturn IB rocket is on a pedestal so that the Apollo capsule on top is at the same height as for a Saturn V (so that the same launch umbilical tower could be used for both rockets). The Saturn IB rocket was used for early Apollo test flights in low Earth orbit. The Saturn V rocket was used to send Apollo to the moon. Almost all Saturn V launches were from 39A.

The first U.S. manned space missions – Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo 7 – were launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center (see map above). The launch sites at Cape Canaveral AFS were not large enough to handle the Saturn V rocket, which is why LC-39 was constructed at KSC.