Cape Kennedy, 1964

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 10/26/2015 at 17:04 • Filed to: planelopnik, spacelopnik

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A Saturn rocket blasts off from Cape Kennedy, the birthplace of the American space program. After 1973, the facility became known as Cape Canaveral.

Back in 1964, The New York Times magazine reported:

“It is difficult for a visitor to Cape Kennedy to grasp the immensity and technical sophistication of the work going into Apollo. He is told of plans to assemble rockets in the world’s largest building, now going up in an improbable setting of sand, water and scrub growth; of preparations to move the rockets, erect, two-thirds as tall as the Washington Monument, along a causeway three and a half miles long to the pads; of the vision, beyond Apollo itself, of this place as ‘Spaceport, U.S.A.,’ a permanent facility for traffic in ships of space — a role for Cape Kennedy roughly comparable to that of Kennedy International Airport in another kind of travel.”

Photo via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

DrJohannVegas > ttyymmnn 10/26/2015 at 17:13

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Ah, Cluster’s Last Stand...love me some S-1.

HammerheadFistpunch > ttyymmnn 10/26/2015 at 17:14

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This picture has such a great “just another day at the spaceport” vibe to it. I’m guessing that’s a Saturn 1

ttyymmnn > HammerheadFistpunch 10/26/2015 at 17:16

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I think so. The last S1 launch was in 1965.

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn 10/26/2015 at 17:18

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The speed of the entire Gemini and Apollo programs boggle the mind, both in terms of any logistical project that preceded or succeeded it, anywhere in the world.

IMHO, of course. If you’re of the short attention spanned nature like me, just go watch the series “From the Earth to the Moon.”

Behold the power of the slide rule.

ttyymmnn > Ash78, voting early and often 10/26/2015 at 17:27

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The power of the slide rule, and the Cold War budget. I wonder if our country is capable of such resolve today. We definitely could use a program like Apollo to unite the country in a common purpose again.

jariten1781 > ttyymmnn 10/26/2015 at 17:30

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I go down to the Cape a coupe times per year. There’s a little museum (Air Force Space and Missile museum) just outside the visitor control center where I go hang out for an hour or so while the new folks are getting their badges made up. Every couple of times there’s a volunteer there who was part of the build up and operation of the place when it was a hopping, idealistic, forward looking center where there was no limit.

Makes me jealous.

ttyymmnn > jariten1781 10/26/2015 at 17:34

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It would have been amazing to have been a part of that.

f86sabre > ttyymmnn 10/26/2015 at 23:20

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Awesome pic!

ttyymmnn > f86sabre 10/26/2015 at 23:25

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Yeah, I thought you'd like that one. :D