Florida: Where not even the sky is the limit

5 May 1961: The first American in space

Aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft that took off from Cape Canaveral on the 5  May 1961, Alan Shepard became the first ever American (and the second person in the world) to go to space. He made his landmark exploration in a Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket, and you can see a similar one for yourself at the Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center. 

January 1965: Tours of Kennedy Space Center begin 

After the huge success of the Cape Kennedy (now named Cape Canaveral Air Force Station) drive-through tours that attracted around 100,000 visitors between late 1963 and 1964, the tours expanded to include Kennedy Space Center. On the first day, almost 2,000 people came, triggering the decision to invest in a visitor centre. 

1 August 1967: the new Visitor Information Center is unveiled

Spanning 42 acres and with exhibits, two theatres, and souvenir facilities housed in two main buildings, the visitor centre was unveiled on 1 August 1967. People still continued to pour in and by 1969, the visitor centre had expanded to include an exhibit hall, a Hall of History, another theatre and classrooms, and had become the second most visited attraction in Florida. 

20 July 1969: First man on the Moon 

In May 1961, Kennedy announced the goal of landing a man on the Moon. Less than seven years later, three astronauts did just that. Aboard a Saturn V rocket, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins took off on their mission on 16 July. Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into the lunar module Eagle to start their descent to the Moon with Neil Armstrong making his iconic ‘small steps for man’ on the Moon’s surface just hours later. The crew returned, splashing down near Hawaii on the 24 July, having completed the mission successfully. 

11 - 17 April 1970: The Apollo 13 mission 

Dubbed the ‘successful failure’ the Apollo 13 mission took off on the 11 April, but disaster struck just two days later when an oxygen tank failed. The crew of Apollo 13 and Mission Control in Houston improvised changes to the lunar module, successfully keeping the crew alive until they landed in the ocean on 17 April.

12 April 1981: The Space Shuttle Program

Commanded by astronaut John Young and piloted by Bob Crippen, Space Shuttle Columbia was the first re-usable spacecraft. The successful mission marked the start of a new era of spaceflight in which wheeled landings and the reuse of mission-proven spacecraft could be used, as well as giving the world greater access to space. 

18 June 1983: First American woman in space

Dr Sally Ride became the first American woman to go to space when she launched aboard the Challenger in 1983. Dr Sally Ride later went on to start the Sally Ride Science Organisation which aimed to encourage young girls and women to pursue careers in science, maths, technology and engineering. 

30 May 2020: A new era of space exploration begins

50 years after the first man on the Moon, on 30 May 2020, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were launched into space aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, marking the start of a new beginning in the USA’s space journey.

In 2022 and beyond: The launch of Artemis

Early next year, in their next step of innovation, the Artemis mission will launch. This mission will see the first female astronauts and astronauts of colour go to the Moon and will use  innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. The first stage, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft around the Moon. Artemiss II will be a creed flight test of these around the Moon. And Artemis III will see regular missions take place with crew exploring both the surface of the Moon and around the Moon.