Launch pads at the John F. Kennedy Space Center, FL
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Launch Operations Center which supports Launch Complex 39 (LC-39), originally built for the Saturn V, the largest and most powerful operational launch vehicle in history, for the Apollo manned Moon landing program proposed by President John F. Kennedy. It was named in honor of Kennedy by his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, shortly after Kennedy's death in 1963. Since the end of the Apollo program in 1972, LC-39 has been used to launch every NASA human space flight, including Skylab (1973), the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1974), and the Space Shuttle program (1981-2011). KSC also has a facility which was used for landing the reusable Space Shuttle orbiters when weather permitted. KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for the U.S. government's civilian space program from three pads at the adjoining Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Located on Merritt Island, Florida, the center is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Miami and Jacksonville on Florida's Space Coast. It is 34 miles (55 km) long and roughly 6 miles (10 km) wide, covering 219 square miles (570 km2).
