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A
view of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy
Space Center from Canaveral National Seashore. One
of the great events in human history happened here;
landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to
the Earth again. This is the location of the early Mercury
and
Gemini missions, leading up to the Apollo space flights
to the Moon. These photographs record the visual legacy
of those events. This is a
look, fifty years later, at the historic rockets, early
computers, scientific hardware, abandoned utilitarian
architecture, and the sweeping launch pad landscapes
that all played a critical part in the journey to the
Moon.
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Old
Apollo Saturn V launch pad 39B, now a Space Shuttle
launch pad, viewed from the wildlife refuge that borders
Kennedy
Space Center. These photographs are from
an ongoing project
to photograph
Cape Canaveral
Air Force
Station
and Kennedy
Space Center. I was 9 years old when
man
first landed on the Moon, so interest in space travel
was very much a part of my developing years.
Super hero astronaut myths were born here, and
some of the hardware
that
allowed
these
missions to be completed is still
here, rusting away in the salty Florida air. |
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Space
Shuttle Discovery on launch pad 39A, 8 days
before launch. The shuttle shown here may be in it's
final year
of service,
the final
missions
are
to complete the international space station. |
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| Thor-Able rocket, the first in a long line of missiles
which include the modern day Atlas rockets. The Thor-Able
rocket launched the Pioneer 1 spacecraft in October 1958,
the first launch of a spacecraft by the newly formed National
Aeronautics and Space Administration at Cape Canaveral Air
Force Base. |
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Titan
I Intercontinental Ballistic Missile first stage engine.
These missiles were designed
for intercontinental delivery of nuclear warheads, and
were the United States first true multi-stage rocket.
The early space program and military programs were closely
linked, sharing technologies and launch areas. Many of
the rocket designs were direct decendents of the German
V2 rocket, and in fact were designed by some of the same
german scientist, brought over from Germany at the
end of WWII.
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