What is the Kennedy Space Center like?

The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is located on Merritt Island on the east coast of Florida, USA. Founded in July 1962, it is the most important place for testing, preparing and launching manned and unmanned spacecraft. Its name is in memory of the late American President John F. Kennedy. The whole site is 55km long and10km wide, covering an area of 567km2. About 65,438+07,000 people work there. There is also a visitor center on the website, and visitors can also visit with a tour guide. Kennedy Space Center is an important tourist attraction in Florida. At the same time, because most of the Kennedy Space Center is closed, it is also a national wildlife refuge in the United States.

At present, the launch headquarters of Kennedy Space Center is located in Launch Center 39, which is also the location of the aircraft assembly building. There are two launch sites 6000 meters to the west, and 8000 meters to the south is the industrial zone of Kennedy Space Center, where there are many center support facilities and management headquarters.

Kennedy Space Center consists of four parts: industrial zone, Launch Center 39 and its two launch sites, LC-39A and LC-39B, aircraft assembly building and visitor center.

In addition to supporting facilities and management headquarters, Kennedy Space Center also has space station manufacturing equipment for the International Space Station in the industrial zone.

The work area consists of assembly workshop, control center, meteorological center and news work area. The control center is the nerve center of launch, and the meteorological center is responsible for providing real-time satellite meteorological cloud pictures, wind speed and other data for the control center's reference. The assembly workshop is responsible for assembling the rocket or space shuttle, and after the assembly is completed, it will be towed to the launcher by the tracked vehicle. The launcher is located in the Atlantic Ocean 3 kilometers away from the work area, and the two towers are numbered "A" and "B" respectively.

Associated Press, Reuters, CNN and other major media in the world have full-time reporters in the Space Center and their own work buildings. The first floor of the work building is for journalists, and the platform on the second floor is for photographers. In addition, every major news event, many TV media and written media will rent satellite work vehicles for live coverage.

Cape Canaveral has been an American space base for more than 50 years. 1949, Truman, then president of the United States, decided to use Cape Canaveral as the launching base of American missiles. After more than ten years, it has been used by the subordinate departments of the US Department of Defense. It was not until 1962 that NASA settled in that Cape Canaveral became a dual-purpose space launch base. Cape Canaveral was chosen as the launch site because of its low latitude. Launching a rocket to the east can use the additional speed of the earth's rotation to help the satellite enter orbit.

Since the first rocket launch here in 1950, Cape Canaveral has successively launched the Cosmos rocket and Hercules rocket. 198 1 year, the space shuttle was launched from Cape Canaveral for the first time.

Launch center 39

Launch Center 39 was originally built for the Apollo program. To the east is the workshop and control center. To the north is the spacecraft processing plant that maintains the landing space shuttle. The big building in the middle is the aircraft assembly building, which contains four different rockets (including Saturn V launch vehicle), the external fuel tank of the space shuttle and the solid rocket propulsion. To the south of the prefabricated building is a low factory building. There are facilities for assembling space shuttle rockets. The whole prefabricated building is160m high and covers an area of 218×158m.

Assembly platforms 1 and No.3 in the building are located in the east of the building, and No.2 and No.4 are located in the west. Because the actual number of launches was less than planned, the No.2 assembly platform was only used once, while the No.4 assembly platform was never used. Today, the west side of the building is used as a warehouse. The gate of the building is 139 meters high and consists of seven door panels, each of which can be lifted independently.

Overlooking the launch site 1976. When celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the United States, a 64× 33.5m American flag was painted on the south wall of the building. Every stripe on the flag is as wide as a bus. Because there is no air conditioning in the building, rain clouds will form on the roof when it rains outside in the past. Later, a dryer was added to the building, and this problem was solved.

There are two roads 6000 meters long from the assembled building to launch site A (in the south) and launch site B (in the north). These two roads are prepared for crawler-type transport vehicles that transport assembled rockets or space shuttles. Kennedy Space Center has two tracked transport vehicles, each weighing 272 1 ton, with a carrying area of 40×35 meters. They are the second most steerable cars in the world. Their speed is 1.6 km/h, so it takes 5 hours from the assembly building to the launch site. For the technology at that time, it was a remarkable technical achievement to send the Saturn V rocket with a height of 1 10 meters to the launch site standing and climb to the launch site with a slope of 5%.

LC-39A and LC-39B launch sites

LC-39A and LC-39B are used interchangeably, just a few meters away from the Atlantic coast. The distance between them is 2.7 kilometers. The current space shuttle is much lower than the Saturn V rocket at that time, so it was cut short. Today, their height is 8 1.3 meters (excluding lightning rods).

In order to prevent the whole facility and the take-off spacecraft from being damaged by sound waves during launch, more than one million liters of water were sprayed into the lower part of the launch site within a few seconds after take-off. Even so, when Saturn V was launched, windows were often broken in Titusville, about 20 kilometers away.

In the northeast and northwest corners of the launch site are cylindrical hydrogen-oxygen fuel tanks, each of which can hold 3.3 million liters of condensed liquid fuel. In order to prevent the danger of explosion, the external fuel tank of the space shuttle can only be filled up shortly before takeoff.

Space shuttle landing facility

The space shuttle landing facility is located about 3.2 kilometers northwest of the assembly building. It is mainly composed of a runway with a length of 4572 meters and a width of 9 1 meter. It is connected with the spacecraft processing plant through an asphalt road. If the space shuttle does not land at Kennedy Space Center, it will be transported to Kennedy Space Center by a Boeing 747, and then unloaded directly from the back of the plane on the runway.

Office de Tourisme

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center is a private enterprise, and its operation does not depend on the funding of the US government. It includes several museums, two IMAX cinemas and different car guides, allowing visitors to see places that are invisible or open at close range. Admission tickets include car transportation to the observation point of Launch Site 39 and transportation to Apollo-Saturn 5 Center. This center is a large museum with reconstructed Saturn V rocket and other exhibits. Among these exhibitions, there is a reconstructed shooting training ground of Apollo period, where visitors can relive Apollo's take-off and a place where visitors can relive the landing of Apollo 1 1.

The visitor center also includes two facilities organized by the Astronaut Memorial Foundation. One of the most striking is the Space Mirror Memorial Hall, a huge black granite mirror engraved with the names of astronauts who died in the line of duty. These names are constantly illuminated from behind. Use natural light if possible, otherwise use artificial light. These glowing names seem to be suspended in the reflected sky. The detailed life and death of these astronauts are recorded on the nearby screen. Another facility organized by the Foundation is the Space Education Center, which includes a teacher materials center.

History of Kennedy Space Center

From 65438 to 0949, US President Harry S. Truman established a joint long-range test site for testing missiles at Cape Canaveral. This place is very conducive to such an experiment, because the missile can fly to the Atlantic Ocean, and it is closer to the equator than anywhere else in the United States, and the rocket can use the acceleration of the earth's rotation. The first suborbital rocket flight of the United States was successful at Cape Canaveral.

195 1 year, the us air force established an air force missile test center near the banana river naval air station. Following the successful launch of the Soviet satellite 1, the first American artificial satellite, Navy Avant-garde I, was successfully launched on February 6, 1957. 1958 NASA was established and Cape Canaveral was transformed into an important launch site. Redstone rocket, Jupiter medium-range missile, Jupiter -C rocket, Pershing missile, Polaris missile, Raytheon rocket, Hercules rocket, Titan rocket and militia missile were successfully tested here. Raytheon later became the basis of the delta wing rocket that is mainly used today. The delta wing rocket was first launched on July 1962, when it was carrying Telstar satellite.

After the moon landing plan was announced, Cape Canaveral's action scope expanded to the neighboring Merritt Island. 1962, NASA began to purchase land, and acquired 340 square kilometers through purchase and 226 square kilometers through negotiation with Florida. 1July, 962, named as the launch operation center. 1963165438+1October, in memory of President John F. Kennedy, who was just assassinated, it was renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center. The surrounding Cape Canaveral was also renamed Cape Kennedy, but the locals were dissatisfied with the new name, so they changed it back at 1973.

The moon landing program is divided into three stages: project mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Project mercury's goal is to put people into Earth orbit and then bring them back. This project started in June, 65438 +0957 +65438 10, using Hercules rocket and carrying mercury load. The initial experiment used Redstone rocket to send astronauts into suborbital flights, including the 196 1 flight in Shepard, Allen on May 5 and the 15-minute flight in Virgil Grissom on July 20. Hercules' first astronaut was john glenn. His flight took place on February 20th. 1962.

Based on the experience of project mercury, the United States built a Gemini carrier module with two people, and the launch rocket was Titan II. The first Gemini launch was on1March 23rd, 965. The astronauts are John Young and Virgil Gleason. Gemini IV was the first time an astronaut left the plane. The astronaut is edward white. The Kennedy Space Center launched 12 Gemini spacecraft.

Apollo plans to use a three-stage Saturn V rocket (height11m, diameter 10 m). The manufacturers are Boeing (first class), North American Aviation Industry Corporation (engine and second class) and Douglas Aircraft Corporation (third class). North American Aviation Industry Corporation also made the command and service module, and the lunar module was made by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Company. The instruments are provided by IBM, MIT and General Electric Company.

The new launch center of Kennedy Space Center, Launch Center 39, costs 800 million dollars. It includes an assembly building that can assemble four Saturn V rockets at the same time, a transportation facility that can transport 5,440 tons, a service structure with a height of 1.36 meters and a control center. The overall construction started in June 1962 1 1, the launch site was completed in June 1965 1, the assembly plant was completed in June 1965 and the infrastructure construction was completed in June 1966. From 1967 to 1973, 13 Saturn V rockets were launched from Launch Center 39.

Before the launch center 39 was put into operation, a series of experiments of Saturn 1 and Saturn 1B were carried out in the launch center 34. 1 967 65438+1The fire of Apollo-Saturn 204 (Apollo1) on October 27th killed three astronauts in Launch Center 34.

The experimental flight of Saturn V (Apollo 4) was carried out on 19671October 30th, and the first manned flight (Apollo 7) was carried out on 19681October 30th, 165438. 19681On February 24th and 25th, apollo 8 circled the moon 10. Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 tested the lunar module. Apollo 1 1 took off on July 1969 and landed on the moon on July 20th. Since then, all Apollo spacecraft have taken off from Kennedy Space Center until Apollo 1972, 17 in February.

The air force decided to further improve the Titan rocket which can lift heavy objects. To this end, they established Cape Canaveral Air Force Launch Center No.40 and Cape Canaveral Air Force Launch Center No.41to launch Air Force Titan 3 and Titan 4 rockets. Titan 3 has the same load as Saturn 1B, but it is much cheaper. These two launch centers are used to launch spies, communications, meteorological satellites and NASA planetary probes. Initially, the air force planned to carry out its own manned flight, but these plans were later cancelled.

The Kennedy Space Center continued to study unmanned rockets at the same time as the Apollo program. 1966 On May 30th, a Hercules Centaur rocket was launched from No.36 Air Force Launch Center in Cape Canaveral, and the first American probe landed on the moon. Since then, five more lunar probes have been launched from here. From 1974 to 1977, Hercules-Centaur rocket became a heavy rocket of NASA, and it was used to launch the probes of the Piracy Plan and the Voyager Plan from the launch center 4 1 lent by NASA. Later, Saturn IV, the most powerful unmanned rocket in the United States, was launched from here.

Saturn V rocket 1973 is also the launch vehicle that put Skylab into orbit. In order to adapt to the launch of Saturn 1B, the launch site 39B was slightly modified. 1973 Three manned flights to the space laboratory were launched from here. The Apollo-Soyuz test is scheduled to be launched from here in 1975.

Kennedy Space Center is also the launch site and landing site of the space shuttle. The space shuttle Columbia was launched for the first time on April 198 1. 1986 65438+1On October 28th, after the space shuttle Challenger was destroyed by the explosion during the launch, the launch was once interrupted.

In September 2004, part of the Kennedy Space Center was destroyed by Hurricane Francis. More than 1000 tiles with the size of 1.2×3 meters are exposed in the south and east of the aircraft assembly building, exposing 3700 square meters of the whole building. The production workshop of the space shuttle insulation tile was also damaged, with some roofs exposed and the interior seriously damaged by water.