KSC Director Bob Cabana announces the signing of the pad 39A lease agreement on April 14, 2014. Prior to the SpaceX lease agreement, the pad remained as it was when Atlantis launched on the final shuttle mission on July 8, 2011, complete with a mobile launcher platform. Just as for the first 24 shuttle flights, LC-39A supported the final shuttle flights, starting with STS-117 in June 2007 and ending with the retirement of the Shuttle fleet in July 2011. The damage had been exacerbated by the fact that hydrochloric acid is an exhaust by-product of the solid rocket boosters. The subsequent investigation found that the damage was the result of carbonation of epoxy and corrosion of steel anchors that held the refractory bricks in the trench in place.

Since then, Pad 39A hosted all Space Shuttle launches until January 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger would become the first to launch from pad 39B during the ill-fated STS-51-L mission.ĭuring the launch of Discovery on STS-124 on May 31, 2008, the pad at LC-39A suffered extensive damage, in particular to the concrete trench used to deflect the SRBs' flames. The first usage of Pad 39A for the Space Shuttle came in 1979, when Enterprise was used to check the facilities prior to the first operational launch. With the advent of the Space Shuttle program in the early 1980s, the original structure of the launch pads were remodeled for the needs of the Space Shuttle. With the exception of Apollo 10, which used Pad 39B (due to the 'all-up' testing resulting in a 2-month turnaround period), all crewed Apollo-Saturn V launches, commencing with Apollo 8, used Pad 39A. The second uncrewed launch, Apollo 6, also used Pad 39A. The first launch from Launch Complex 39A came in 1967 with the first Saturn V launch, which carried the uncrewed Apollo 4 spacecraft. įirst, Launch Complex 39C, Launch Complex 39A was designed to handle launches of the Saturn V rocket, the largest and most powerful launch vehicle, which would propel Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.

Congressional approval led to the launch of the Apollo program, which required a massive expansion of NASA operations, including an expansion of launch operations from the Cape to adjacent Merritt Island to the north and west. of this collection was just like the first time I found it.like a kid at Christmas in the morning only then I knew the value of what I was getting and have such gratitude for its return to the public for any who want to experience it.In 1961, President Kennedy proposed to Congress the goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. I was devastated when the previous website folded and the rediscovery a few years back. Thank you to everyone who was part of making this available to the public. I completely dove right into anything I could find out about the program over the last 10 years and this is the source I keep coming back to. I was born in 1970 so I have absolutely no recollection of anything before Sky Lab and my generation was really that of the Shuttle. I can't believe how wrong my recollection was from grade school and Jr high lessons. I was just getting into researching the program from Mercury all the way up to and past Apollo. I had no idea that they existed 10 years ago when I found them.

What an amazing documentation of history being made. Even the return trip right up to the capsule being strapped to a helo. They are just so amazing to listen while trying to imagine them in the capsule, the LM and the lunar surface EVA. They have helped with my insomnia episodes as well as helping me get my mind off of the constant chronic pain I have. I have listened to all of the recordings over and over. This seems to be the complete existing collection. When I found these recordings on a different site (it no longer exists) I felt like a kid at Christmas morning with a pile of gifts just for me! When that site shut down I was lucky enough to find this collection.

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