Voice of John F. Kennedy: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this
decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project
in the period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long range exploration of space."
It began with those words from Kennedy Space Center's namesake --- words that resounded throughout our nation
--- a call for exploration beyond our own planet. It was a challenge that put our nation on a path to the moon.
Accomplishing that challenge began right here at Kennedy Space Center in 1962.
And during the next five decades, this center would serve as the departure gate for every U.S. human spaceflight.
Our space exploration journey began a few years earlier on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where launch pads
were already beginning to line Florida's sunny central east coast during the late 1950's.
Here, a group of seven daring space pioneers were already preparing for missions to explore the heavens
and learn to live and work in space.
From 1961 to 1963 many successful manned Mercury missions were processed and launched from the Cape.
The first up - astronaut Alan Shepard rode an Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule on the first U.S. suborbital
mission, May 5, 1961, just 20 days before President Kennedy's bold speech to Congress.
Not long after ? February 20, 1962 - John Glenn lifted off in the Mercury Friendship 7 capsule from Launch
Complex 14 and became the first American to orbit Earth.
After Mercury came Project Gemini, and Kennedy workers helped prepare the ten manned missions
that were flown on Titan II rockets during 1965 and 1966, and which helped develop skills in rendezvous,
docking and working outside the spacecraft -- skills that would be critical in flying to the Moon during
Project Apollo.
Before the Gemini missions came to an end though, a moon launch facility was starting to take shape at
Kennedy Space Center. A spaceport was unfolding?ready to meet the goal of launching rockets to the moon and
probes to investigate the far reaches of our solar system. An energized workforce stood ready to tackle any
challenge on the horizon.
We built the Launch Complex 39 launch pads and the giant Vehicle Assembly Building designed for the Apollo
missions. The 525-foot-tall VAB was the largest building by volume in the world. With four massive high bays,
work platforms and large cranes, it was a structure fit for processing the mighty Saturn V rocket that would
soon take the dreams of a nation to the moon.
Several Apollo missions launched from Kennedy setting the stage for the main event.
It was Kennedy Space Center's managers, technicians and engineers who helped prepare the Saturn V rocket
and Apollo 11 capsule for the launch to the moon on July 16, 1969. Thousands flocked to witness
history. An estimated 530 million people watched on black and white televisions as the Eagle landed.
They heard Neil Armstrong's words as he became the first human to set foot on the lunar surface, July 20, 1969.
During the 70s, Kennedy's workforce prepared some of the most sophisticated machines of the day ?
robotic probes with computer brains, cameras and instruments that would return information about distant worlds.
These included the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft that launched aboard powerful rockets from the coast of
Florida and traveled to distant planets and are on their way beyond our solar system.
Following Apollo's final lunar landing in 1972, launch of America's first space station called Skylab in 1974,
and the first international handshake in space during the Apollo Soyuz Test Project in 1975, we focused on the
future at Kennedy. A new program, with new goals for space exploration, was beginning to ramp up ? the Space
Shuttle Program ? featuring a vehicle that launched like a rocket, and landed like a glider.
And with it, Kennedy Space Center emerged as a place of adaptation and innovation,
leaders in rocket ingenuity once again.
The first of NASA's fleet of space shuttles, Columbia, arrived at Kennedy in 1979.
Inside the orbiter processing facility, a dedicated NASA and contractor workforce spent two years and
thousands of hours preparing Columbia for her maiden flight. On April 12, 1981, Kennedy and the country
launched a new era of spaceflight.
Each liftoff of space shuttle Columbia, and then Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour etched an
indelible mark on scientific discovery and research -- pushing boundaries and accomplishing more than before.
For 30 years, the space shuttles carried hundreds of astronauts who lived and worked in space. Shuttles
placed innovative Earth-observing and interplanetary explorers into orbit, like Magellan, the first planetary
spacecraft launched by a shuttle. Galileo-deployed by Atlantis on a six-year journey to Jupiter.
And the Hubble Space Telescope, which revealed a colorful and active universe never seen before.
But with great triumph in our fifty years of space accomplishments, came great tragedy.
An accident on pad 34 took the lives of the Apollo 1 crew on January 27, 1967, and later two shuttle crews.
The world was saddened when we lost the crews of Challenger in 1986, and Columbia in 2003. Left behind was a
Kennedy workforce of thousands, committed to safety, who returned the shuttle fleet to service, to one day
complete the International Space Station. Our legacy of being the world's premier launch facility continued.
For more than a decade, Kennedy Space Center's Space Station Processing Facility workers prepared many of the
parts for the orbiting outpost, including all of the solar arrays, the Destiny Lab, four multi-purpose
logistics modules, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, connecting nodes, and the cupola?the station's
window to the world.
Our country and the world are reaping the benefits of this orbiting laboratory as it reaches its full potential
in research and technology. It will be the centerpiece of human spaceflight activities for many years to come.
And while the space station came together, Kennedy Space Center's Launch Services Program continued NASA's
tradition of innovation and discovery with successful rocket launches that increased our understanding of
Earth, other planets in our solar system and the deep space beyond.
This skilled NASA and contractor team has supported the launch of an impressive collection of
rockets and spacecraft.
Including the Mars rovers, searching for clues about life on the red planet,
Kepler, which is investigating planets like our own, and the triumphant touchdown of Curiosity -
ready to explore the habitat on Mars.
LSP is earth's bridge to space, continuing to launch spacecraft and satellites aboard powerful
and sophisticated rockets from the east and west coasts
In 2011, the last three space shuttle missions were successfully launched and landed ?
completing 30 years of remarkable service.
Now, as we successfully did after Apollo, the center is transforming itself once again, by updating and
preparing the facilities to support a new generation of space launch vehicles. The massive Vehicle Assembly
Building is undergoing a renovation to accommodate several different launch vehicles at once,
including NASA's Space Launch System. Launch Pad 39B is now a clean pad that can support many different types
of launch vehicles. And the shuttle landing facility is being readied to serve as a launching and
landing point for a new breed of space exploration vehicles.
The Operations and Checkout Building high bay has been totally renovated for processing of the
Orion spacecraft that will carry humans into space and beyond low Earth orbit.
During the past fifty years, Kennedy Space Center and the people who prepared NASA's missions,
readied its vehicles, shared in the excitement of each launch. They built a legacy of ingenuity, innovation,
safety and success. They are ? WE are - the world's leaders in launch engineering.
Building on the past, yet standing ready for the future.
Look at everything we've accomplished ? and we're just getting started.
Our nation's space exploration adventure will continue at the place where it all began - Kennedy Space Center.