It is now the major deep-water port of Central Florida. Work began on May 9, , under a contract with the Duval Engineering Company of Jacksonville, Florida , to build the Cape's first paved access road and its first permanent launch site.
On February 6, , the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile was accomplished. Cape Canaveral was chosen for rocket launches to take advantage of the Earth's rotation.
The linear velocity of the Earth's surface is greatest towards the equator ; the relatively southerly location of the cape allows rockets to take advantage of this by launching eastward, in the same direction as the Earth's rotation. It is also highly desirable to have the downrange area sparsely populated, in case of accidents; an ocean is ideal for this.
The east coast of Florida has logistical advantages over potential competing sites. A post office in the area was built and listed in the US Post Office application as Artesia and retained this name from to ; it then went into service for Port Canaveral from to , and lastly the City of Cape Canaveral from to , when a larger post office was built. Kennedy , who had set the goal of landing on the moon. After Kennedy's assassination in , his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy , suggested to President Johnson that renaming the Cape Canaveral facility would be an appropriate memorial.
Johnson recommended the renaming of the entire cape, announced in a televised address six days after the assassination. Accordingly, Cape Canaveral was officially renamed Cape Kennedy. Although the name change was approved by the U.
Board on Geographic Names of the Department of the Interior in December , it was not popular in Florida, especially in the bordering city of Cape Canaveral. In , the Florida Legislature passed a law restoring the former year-old name, and the Board went along. The name restoration to Cape Canaveral became official on October 9, The Kennedy family issued a letter stating they "understood the decision".
Cape Canaveral facts for kids Kids Encyclopedia Facts. This page is about the area of Florida. For the city, see Cape Canaveral, Florida. This revelation proved problematic for the space program, especially an ambitious effort by NASA to build a vigorous manned spaceflight program.
In support of the NASA manned spaceflight activities, it was clear that more land for launch areas was necessary. Even before NASA embarked on a manned lunar landing program, the space agency planned to dramatically expand its use of large, heavy lift rockets.
The first of these was the Saturn I, which was designed in a number of configurations to meet manned and unmanned NASA applications. The former could accommodate a maximum of four Saturn I launches per year, while Launch Complex 37 could accommodate a maximum of eight Saturn I launches per year. It was clear that if NASA required Saturn-type launches per year, or even 20 Saturn-type launches per year as mentioned in more conservative forecasts, more land than was available on Cape Canaveral would be needed.
NASA also envisioned larger and larger rockets for introduction in the future. These rockets could not be serviced in the relative confines of geographic Cape Canaveral. By early , NASA developed and refined a mobile launch concept, whereby a central processing area would service multiple launch pads. This would make launch processing more efficient, decrease the time a rocket spent at the launch pad and decrease the amount of land required for each individual launch area.
Initial mobile launch concepts called for a vertical transfer of the rocket from a central assembly area to the launch pad by barge or train. In April, the NASA Future Launch Systems Office issued a report recommending that the assembly area and transfer method be designed specifically for the rocket being used. A design for the specific technical criteria for the next Saturn-type launch complex, designated Launch Complex 39, was scheduled to be decided upon not later than January, A decision was made to design the launch complex to be technically compatible with whatever program NASA would be supporting, even if this proved to be substantially more expensive than existing launch complexes.
Hence, the design of a new launch complex would have to wait until a specific program was adopted. There were three basic methods proposed, each of which would require different launch concepts. The first would employ one huge rocket called Nova, which would send the astronauts on a direct ascent to the Moon. The second called for the launch of multiple Saturn-type rockets followed by an Earth-orbit rendezvous, then a trip to the Moon. The third called for the launch of multiple Saturn-type rockets followed by lunar-orbit rendezvous.
An announcement by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, that the U. The Nova super booster plan was rejected early, because it could not have been accomplished until after at the earliest. Either of the two multiple Saturn-type rocket launching methods would be better, but would still require the construction of a large, new launch site.
By July, the basic technical requirements of the launch site were decided. These requirements included:. Vertical assembly and checkout of the rocket on a mobile launcher umbilical tower housed in an environmentally controlled building,. Transfer of the assembled rocket and mobile launcher to the launch pad for final checkout, fueling and launch,. Control of launch operations from a remote launch control center with two firing rooms, one for checkout and one for launch,.
The Gemini Program initiated docking with other spacecrafts, extended the length of space flights, and made possible space walks to gain more information about the unknown frontier of space.
The program was very successful and all of the goals were met within the decade. The space program continued to expand with the Apollo Program. The Apollo Program finally fulfilled the promise made by Kennedy when, on July 20, , Neil Armstrong stepped on the surface of the moon and said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. The space shuttle program began in the 70s and flourished in the 80s. Florida once again became the center of attention as this new spacecraft concept made space travel less of a dream and more of a reality.
Attending launches became an exciting experience for Floridians and other Americans. Throughout the state, people who had never thought about the space program could stand outside their homes and watch the shuttle go into space.
The entire state suffered on January 28, when the Challenger space shuttle exploded and killed all seven members of the crew, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian astronaut.
They can visit exhibitions that recount the history of manned space flight, take guided tours of launchpads, and find out all about NASA and its plans for the future. The Kennedy Space Center opens a fascinating window to the vastness of space. It has become a launchpad to the stars.
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