Cape Canaveral

Set amid 150,000 acres of marshland and mangrove swamp, Kennedy Space Center has been the headquarters of American space exploration since the launch of the unmanned Bumper 8 research rocket in July, 1950. Eleven years later, Alan Shepard lifted off from the Cape’s Pad 5 to become the first American in space, and in July, 1969, Apollo 11 blasted off from Pad 39A, carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon.