Cape Canaveral: 60 Years of Discovery

The July 24, 1950 Bumper 8 launch became the first of hundreds of rockets launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Cape in the 16th Century

Image of a map from the 1584 edition of Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum

The Timucua inhabited parts of what's now Florida, including the area which comprises the Cape Canaveral area. This engraving represents Athore, son of the Timucuan chief Saturiwa

To help boat skippers avoid navigational hazards, a 60-foot lighthouse was built on the Cape in 1848. The current Cape Canaveral Light is not the original structure.

Original Cape Canaveral Lighthouse at left alongside its replacement

May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard launched from Complex 5 at Cape Canaveral aboard a Redstone rocket to become the first American to make a space flight.

Construction of the Vehicle Assembly Building began in 1963 and was finished three years later. For a brief time, it also held the distinction of being the world's biggest building, with an enclosed area of 129,482,000 cubic feet.

Launch of a Titan I ICBM from Cape Canaveral. On 6 February 1959, the base was host to thefirst successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile.

In August 1961, plans were announced to add another 80,000 acres of land to the site in order to meet its expanded mission of hosting manned lunar flight expeditions.

From 1959 to 1963, the Mercury Project set out to put a human in orbit around the Earth. On February 20, 1962, the first Mercury flight made good on that achievement. the Cape site was chosen in order to take advantage of the maximum linear velocity of the Earth, which is greatest near the equator.

Project Gemini carried out 10 manned flights between 1965 and 1966, all launched from Cape Canaveral

President John F. Kennedy

Cape Canaveral was renamed Cape Kennedy in 1963 in honor of President John F. Kennedy. In 1973, the state restored its former name.

Gus Grissom and John Young teamed up on the first launch of the Gemini Program on March 23, 1965.

The first Apollo/Saturn V rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building May 25, 1966.

Tragedy strikes on Jan 27 1967 when the three-man crew for the first manned Apollo died in a flash fire that broke out during a dress rehearsal for the launch. (From left to right: the crew included Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee.)

The Space Center's Launch Control Center

On Oct. 11, 1968, the first manned launch in the Apollo Program successfully completes its mission with eight firings of the spacecraft's primary propulsion system. (The crew included Walter Schirra, Don Eisele, and Walt Cunningham.)