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1995-04-04
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In July, 1949, a modified V2 rocket was test launched from a remote sand pit in Florida
known as Cape Canaveral. At the time, nobody outside of the US Army knew of the
event, but this marked the first rocket launch at what was to become Spaceport USA.
Cape Canaveral is a large, mostly flat region of sand dunes, waterways, and beaches in a
remote region of the Florida coast. The Facility includes the Cape Canaveral Air Station,
the Kennedy Space Center named after president John F. Kennedy, and two launch pads.
There is also now a landing strip and facility specially designed for the space shuttle.
One of the largest buildings in the world is located at Cape Canaveral. The Vehicle
Assembly Building (VAB) was originally built for the Apollo program in the 1960s. The
massive structure was built to house the Saturn V rocket, along with cranes and other
equipment for assembling the Apollo modules and Saturn rocket. The Vehicle Assembly
Building is now used to assemble the space shuttle and launch system prior to roll out to
the pad.
The same launch pad crawler used to drive the Saturn V moon rockets to the launch tower
is now used for the space shuttle. The giant vehicle is like a mobile launch pad with two-
story tall tractor treads. The vehicle moves slowly to avoid tipping its cargo, and takes
many hours to make the three mile trip to the launch site.
Because of weather conditions in Florida, it is often unsafe to land the shuttle at Cape
Canaveral. In these cases, the shuttle lands at Edwards Air Force Base in southern
California. Edwards Air Force Base is located in the Mojave desert, which has very
predictable weather as well as tens of miles of perfectly flat runways. This is almost
always a safe place to land.
America's backup spaceport is located on the central California coast, at Vandenberg Air
Force Base. Like Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg is in a relatively secluded area. This base
also has vehicle assembly buildings, a crawler transport vehicle, and a launch pad suitable
for the space shuttle. Vandenberg also has runways which the space shuttle could use for
landing.
Although there has not been a shuttle launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base to date, the
base has been the launch site of many expendable rockets launching satellites for civilian
and military uses. Located only four hours north of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena as well as many aerospace contractors that build satellites, Vandenberg is often a
more convenient launch site.
If America continues to maintain a commitment to space faring endeavors, and the trips to
space become more routine and economical, then the need for spaceports will naturally
increase. Just as airports became necessary as airplanes became more common, so will
facilities for launching and receiving spacecraft.