July 13, 2007 Vol. 46, No. 14 Spaceport News John F. Kennedy Space Center - America’s gateway to the universe http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/snews/spnews_toc.html Kennedy Space Center celebrates 45 years of excellence By Bill Parsons Center Director he men and women of Kennedy Space Center have Tbeen extending humanity’s reach and knowledge for 45 years. As we push to return to the moon, it is important that we look back on a remarkable record of scientific and technological achievement for the United States. The launch complexes dotting Cape Canaveral’s shores had been launching rockets for 12 years before ground was broken in 1962 on what would become Kennedy Space Center. With a mandate to build a launch center, NASA and FORMER PRESIDENT Lyndon Johnson (in blue suit above) and former Kennedy’s first director, Dr. Kurt Vice President Spiro Agnew (in beige suit) view the liftoff of Apollo 11 from H. Debus, set out to build an the Kennedy Space Center VIP viewing site. The two political figures were infrastructure to support the at KSC to witness the launch of the first manned lunar landing mission, biggest rockets ever devised. which took place from Pad 39A on July 16, 1969 (at left). Facilities such as the Opera- handled the business of launching Kennedy workers continue to tions and Checkout Building, planetary probes and satellites prepare the orbiter fleet for Launch Complex 39 and the dispatch the first of six teams of with the use of the Expendable important missions to finish the landmark Vehicle Assembly astronauts to the surface of the Launch Vehicle program in the International Space Station and Building quickly took shape on moon during the Apollo program. late 1980s. Private contractors modify facilities to handle the new the barren sands of the northern tip The Kennedy Space Center took on a larger role in testing and Orion vehicles. of Merritt Island. work force next turned its focus to processing spacecraft while NASA The record of success may The agency’s cutting-edge the space shuttle and the chal- maintained oversight of the launch seem like a finish line to some, but team of engineers, technicians and lenges of readying a reusable facilities. we see it as a starting point for contractors launched astronauts spacecraft for orbit. Columbia As NASA readies new space- NASA’s explorations that power aboard Redstone, Atlas and Titan lifted off from Launch Complex craft for a return to the moon, the future. rockets while the larger Apollo 39A on April 12, 1981, to kick off structures were built. They also a program that has seen 118 sent the earliest unmanned launches in 26 years. Complex spacecraft toward planets in our missions called for Kennedy to solar system that were previously ready spacecraft and equipment for out of reach. Missions to Mars, flights that would launch planetary Venus, Mercury and Jupiter probes, repair the Hubble Space complemented the great strides of Telescope and process the largest the manned programs. space complex in history: the Seven years from its inception, International Space Station. Kennedy Space Center would NASA also evolved how it Special Issue This commemorative issue of Spaceport News is a tribute to the achievements of the men and women who have worked at the Kennedy Space Center during the past 45 years. From the early achievements of the Apollo launches to the successes of the Space Shuttle Program, we SPACE SHUTTLE Columbia arrives at Launch Pad 39A on Dec. 29, 1980. salute the employees who have made spaceflight possible. The orbiter lifted off on April 12, 1981. Page 2 SPACEPORT NEWS July 13, 2007 Land purchased to give NASA space for new center By Kay Grinter appreciated NASA’s efforts to keep Reference Librarian him in business.” One of Greenfield’s assign- ome mayAwards not think of NASA ments was with the NASA team as a real estate mogul, but in analyzing the mobile launch SSeptember 1961, the platform concept. agency’s focus was on the pur- “ ‘How do you best distribute chase of space. Eighty thousand the weight of the mobile launcher acres of Florida land were needed with the stacked vehicle on it?’ for the creation of a large complex was the question,” he recalled. to support manned launches using “Use of a crawler transporter, rather the Saturn and Nova boosters than a railway or a barge, was the already in their conceptual stages. most practical solution because The property lay north and you could spread the weight over west of the U.S. Air Force Missile its shoes.” Test Center facilities at Cape All of the buildings were Canaveral. Numerous privately eventually removed to make way owned homes and businesses were for the new launch pads and situated on the tract on Merritt THIS BUSINESS across from Sunrise Beach provided the community supporting infrastructure. with groceries and services so families did not have to drive to Titusville. Island. Approximately 50 homes Dredged fill from the Banana comprised the Sunrise Beach driveway. He recalled: “There was a barber River and surrounding area was housing development, near the “Twenty miles was a signifi- shop, too. After NASA purchased used to alleviate the swampy location of Pad 41 today. cant distance. We only drove into the property, arrangements were conditions in the Launch Complex Space program employees Titusville twice a week: to the made for the barber to continue 39 area as site preparation began in Charlie and June Buchanan grocery store on Fridays and to cutting hair from a trailer installed 1962. purchased a home in Sunrise church on Sundays.” beside the E&L Building. I Beach in 1959. Charlie transferred June began her NASA career in AN AERIAL from Baltimore with the Martin Public Affairs. Retired since 1995, view of the road Company on the Pershing project. she recalled: “Sunrise Beach was construction an active community of young In the ensuing 48 years, he has for the remained an aerospace contractor families. At its main entrance was a intersection of and is currently with Space little restaurant where you could 2nd Street Gateway Support. also buy milk and bread between and C Avenue He recalled: “My daughter was trips into town.” in the center’s born in 1960 while we were living ASRC Aerospace Corp.’s Terry industrial in Sunrise Beach. When I visited Greenfield relocated from Hunts- area. the home site a few years ago, I ville, Ala., with the Redstone could still make out her initials program in 1956 and still works in carved in the cement of the the space program 51 years later. Book review: ‘A History of the Kennedy Space Center’ ublication of KSC’s new describe the events leading up to and launch, which were still history book, “A History of the Apollo 9 launch: “How did taking about 1.25 million Pthe Kennedy Space Center,” things look for this, the first person-hours. With three is almost here after six years in mission to test all of the hardware shifts, seven days a week, and the making. for the moon descent and landing? 10 percent or more overtime, Authors Kenneth Lipartito “During a chill-down test, two it was just possible to get the and Orville R. Butler have of the three valves failed and had job done, but each orbiter combed through the archives and to be replaced. Workers discovered flow was like ‘running on the interviewed key players in the a fault in a spacecraft battery line, beach with a backpack.’ ” daily drama of the launch center and the “Z” Pipa Bias was out of to capture the essence of tolerance. In other words, pretty “A History of the Kennedy Space Center” will be Kennedy: “A spaceship has to fly much the normal daily events of available on Aug. 12 for on the ground before it can fly in preparing for a launch.” $39.95 in bookstores. Copies space.” Readers may feel a connection, may also be purchased In the 469-page book, the as well, through this analogy from directly from the University writers display a kinship with the the post-Challenger era: “The Press of Florida by calling 800- engineers and technicians shuttle went through some 226-3822 or by visiting the processing the vehicles as they 1.25 million steps between landing Web site, http://www.upf.com/ book.asp?id=LIPARS07. July 13, 2007 SPACEPORT NEWS Page 3 Dr. Kurt H. Debus: The father of Kennedy Space Center By Cheryl Mansfield transferred to the National Aero- program, Debus secured support Staff Writer nautics and Space Administration. for the first visitor center, as well. On July 1, 1962, the Florida By the time Debus retired as r. Kurt H. Debus may have launch facility at Cape Canaveral center director in 1974, the list of served a long tenure as the was officially designated as human space achievements under Dfirst center director of the NASA’s Launch Operations Center his leadership represents some of John F. Kennedy Space Center, and Debus was officially named its the greatest in U.S. history. Among from 1962 to 1974, but his roots at first center director. them: Cape Canaveral and in the United By that time, construction of • 1961: Alan Shepard Jr. States space program reach even the spaceport under Debus’ became the first American in space further back in time. leadership was well under way. • 1962: John Glenn Jr. became Born in Frankfurt, Germany, in While the space hardware was the first American to orbit Earth 1908, Debus’ education and under development, physical • 1969: The Apollo program’s rocketry experience in his home structures like the launch pads and first lunar landing; Neil Armstrong country landed him in the post- the Vehicle Assembly Building was the first man on the moon World War II ballistic missile rose on what had been coastal • 1973: Skylab, a science and systems development program in wilderness.