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Feb. 20, 2017
The SpaceX launch of a Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39-A is another milestone for NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a premier, multi-user spaceport. Lifting off from the historic launch site in the photo on the right, SpaceX CRS-10 is the company's 10th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station.
Pad 39-A now is operated by SpaceX under a property agreement with NASA.
The first ever launch from Kennedy's Pad 39-A was Apollo 4, in the image on the left. Lifting off on Nov. 9, 1967, it was the first test flight of the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo astronauts to the moon.
The first space shuttle lifted off April 12, 1981 from Pad 39-A for STS-1 -- the center picture. NASA astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen flew the shuttle Columbia for two days, landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
The SpaceX CRS-10 launch of a Dragon spacecraft is the first from Pad 39-A since the final space shuttle mission on July 8, 2011. The Dragon will deliver about 5,500 pounds of supplies to the space station, such as Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrument to further study ozone in the atmosphere.
Related links:
Commercial Resupply: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html
Commercial Space: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/index.html
Kennedy Space Center: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/index.html
Image, Text, creditS: NASA/Bob Granath.
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