Author: Attila Jancsina
Article:
Cape Canaveral is a well-known area in the State of Florida (
com) in the United States. It was the site of many notable
launches of spacecraft for space travel including Apollo 11, the
first flight to the moon.
The Start of the Space Age
On October 4, 1957, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
launched the first artificial satellite off Baikonur Cosmodrome
and ignited the beginning of the Space Race. At this time, the
USSR and the USA was engaged in a Cold War and the Space Race
was part of it. Naturally, the United States wished to catch up
and made its own attempt to launch an artificial satellite -
nicknamed Vanguard TV3 - off Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
This was to be the first launch of United States spacecraft off
Cape Canaveral.
The launch was carried out on December 6, 1957. However, the
launch was deemed a failure as the rocket vehicle exploded upon
launch after losing thrust and crashing back into the launch
pad. The accident is assumed to be caused by the breach of
ignited fuel into the rocket's fuel system, although the true
reason has never been revealed or confirmed.
The U.S. bounced back on its failures, though, successfully
launching its first artificial satellite on January 31, 1958.
Dubbed "Explorer 1", the satellite was the first to discover the
Van Allen radiation belt - a belt of charged particles trapped
in space - although the discovery would only be confirmed later
on during the launch of Explorer 3.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created on
July 28, 1958 to answer the U.S. Congress' perceived threat to
the U.S. security following the launch of Sputnik by the USSR.
It commenced operations on October 1, 1958, with only four
laboratories and 80 employees but, after awhile, it incorporated
the Naval Research Laboratory and the Army Ballistic Missile
Agency to augment its academic ranks.
What followed was a flurry of launches of spacecraft, all of
them using the Cape Canaveral area as a base. Alan Shepard's
space journey aboard Freedom 7 was launched off the John F.
Kennedy Space Center on May 5, 1961. John Glenn, the first human
being to make a complete orbit around the Earth, and the
Friendship 7 spacecraft was also launched off Cape Canaveral on
February 20, 1962 as well as Gus Grissom and John Young aboard
Gemini 3 on March 23, 1965.
All of these space missions, however, only served as a precursor
to a bigger event in the Space Race. The Shepard and Glenn
missions were studies done by NASA regarding short-term human
survival in outer space, while the Gemini space flights were
done to see if long-duration space flight was possible for
humans. All of these missions were feasibility studies to
prepare mankind for the journey to the Moon.
The Apollo Missions
In a bid to gain an edge over the USSR following its failure to
launch the first artificial satellite, the United States
announced in 1961 that it will put men on the Moon. This
announcement paved the way for the Apollo program (1961-1975), a
series of launches off Cape Canaveral aimed to conduct lunar
landing operations by American astronauts.
The U.S. government then acquired 131 square miles of land in
Merritt Island by outright purchase and negotiated with the
state of Florida for an additional 87 square miles. All
operations were to be expanded to the new site, which was
subsequently named Launch Operations center in July 1962, and
finally to John F. Kennedy Space Center in November 1963. It was
from this new site that the Apollo missions and the later Space
Shuttle missions were launched.
Although it began with a failure - Apollo 1 burned on the launch
pad killing its three astronauts including Gus Grissom of the
Gemini project - the Apollo program was largely successful. On
July 16, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the
Moon, followed by several others until December 1972. The only
other failure within the Apollo program is an in-space accident
aboard Apollo 13, a mission that was deemed a "successful
failure" because the crew made it back safely to Earth.
Later Missions and Current Status
The Cape Canaveral area continued to be used as a launch pad for
later space flights. Space Shuttle Columbia, the first Space
Shuttle to be fired into space, was launched off JFK Space
Center on April 12, 1981. Other shuttles were launched using JFK
Space Center.
JFK Space Center is also open to public visitors, with two
museums and two IMAX theaters for tourists. The Visitor Complex
staff allows visitors to tour the restricted facilities for a
fee.
Residents living in the Florida area can easily access the
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
About the author:
Attila Z Jancsina is a freelance copy writer. He occasionally
writes for Florida
Real Estate. Website offers Free FSBO advertisement.
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