Cape Canaveral, home of Kennedy space center (KSC) is located in Brevard County, Florida.\u00a0 In 1963, following president John F. Kennedy\u2019s assassination, the cape was renamed Cape Kennedy, but that was temporary.\u00a0 In 1973, its name was changed back to Cape Canaveral.\u00a0 The actual space center however, remained with the name Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Cape Canaveral was discovered by Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon, he named it Cabo Canaveral, meaning \u201creed bed,\u201d or \u201csugarcane plantation.\u201d\u00a0 This is because before the cape was populated, it was mostly just a sandy marshland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) chose to place their space center in Florida is because it\u2019s one of the closest places to the equator, while still being in America.\u00a0 It is most optimal for rockets to launch near the equator because they can take advantage of the earth\u2019s rotation by using its kinetic energy.\u00a0 On average, rockets have to use 0.3 percent less energy to leave earth\u2019s orbit.\u00a0 In the long run, this can save quite a lot of money on fuel, which can be spent on further research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before Cape Canaveral was used for space exploration, it was used to test missiles.\u00a0 The first rocket launched out of Kennedy space center was a V-2 rocket, called Bumper 8.\u00a0 It was launched on July 24, 1950.\u00a0 Later in 1959, the first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), called Titan, was successfully launched out of Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all these successful launches, NASA decided to make the cape the \u201cprimary launch center for spaceflight, research, and new technology,\u201d according to Spaceline.org, as Cape Canaveral\u2019s credibility grew as an adequate rocket launching location, arguably the most famous space exploration mission ever took place in 1969.\u00a0 The Apollo 11 mission took place out of Cape Canaveral, landing three astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin \u201cBuzz\u201d Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lots of people believe that the rocket that they flew on was called Apollo 11, but in fact, it was the mission that took that name.\u00a0 The actual rocket was called Saturn V.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nowadays, when visiting Kennedy Space Center, there are tons of attractions available for anyone to view.\u00a0 Some examples of the most exciting attractions are the Saturn V rocket, the same model that landed men on the moon, the Atlantis Space Shuttle, and lots of artifacts from historical rocket launches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even today, the Kennedy Space Center is one of the world’s best rocket launching facilities for government and commercial businesses, such as NASA and Space X.\u00a0 Recently, the most commonly launched rocket from Cape Canaveral is the Falcon 9, made by Space X, which was founded by Elon Musk, a 53 year old billionaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most important buildings at Kennedy Space center to see is the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), also known as the Moon Building, which is a massive, rectangular building in which the final assembly of rockets and other capsules is completed.\u00a0 It is also where the crawler-transporter is located, 131 feet long by 114 foot wide, and $14 million dollars in 1967.\u00a0 Thats more like $128.5 million in today\u2019s money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nGraphic done by Ryder Navarra<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Chase Cowan Cape Canaveral, home of Kennedy space center (KSC) is located in Brevard County, Florida.\u00a0 In 1963, following president John F. Kennedy\u2019s assassination, the cape was renamed Cape Kennedy, but that was temporary.\u00a0 In 1973, its name was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[701,394,704],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/henry-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7557,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7552\/revisions\/7557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}