1 Oct 1958 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formally organized out of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency consisted of approximately 8,000 employees and had an annual budget of $100 million. On Oct. 7, just six days after NASA began operation, the first American human space flight program, Project Mercury, was initiated.
5 May 1961 - After extensive preparations and several frustrating launch attempts, Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American to make a space flight. He launched from Complex 5 at Cape Canaveral aboard a Redstone rocket. His Freedom 7 capsule reached an altitude of 116 miles during this suborbital flight and splashed down some 304 miles out into the Atlantic. The six flights in the Mercury program concluded with Gordon Cooper's launch on May 15, 1963.
24 Aug 1961 - NASA announced that it intends to expand the Cape Canaveral facilities for manned lunar flight and other missions requiring advanced Saturn and Nova boosters by acquiring 80,000 acres of land north and west of the Air Force Missile Test Center facilities at the Cape. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was designated to act as real estate acquisition agent for NASA, and the Lands Division of the Justice Department was designated to handle the legal aspects.
1 July 1962 - Dr. Kurt H. Debus was named director of the Launch Operations Center which later became the John F. Kennedy Space Center. Having supervised the development and construction of launch facilities at Cape Canaveral from 1952 to 1960 for the U.S. Army, he was the natural choice to direct the design, development and construction of NASA's Apollo/Saturn V facilities at KSC. He retired in November 1974, having been responsible for the launches conducted during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab programs.
July 1963 - Construction of the Vehicle Assembly Building began and was substantially completed early in 1966. At the time of its construction it was the largest building in the world, with an enclosed area of 129,482,000 cubic feet. At a height of 525 feet, 10 inches to the top of the finished roof of its high bays it was constructed with 98,590 tons of steel and 65,000 cubic yards of concrete.
29 Nov 1963 - President Johnson renamed both the Launch Operations Center and the Cape Canaveral Auxiliary Air Force Station to the John F. Kennedy Space Center seven days after the president was assassinated. NASA Administrator James Webb officially issued a similar order changing the name of NASA's facility on Dec. 20, 1963. The U.S. Department of the Interior's Board of Geographical Names changed the name of the geographical cape from Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy the following year.
23 Mar 1965 - Gus Grissom and John Young made the first launch of the Gemini Program aboard the spacecraft Molly Brown. By so doing, Grissom and Young formed the first NASA astronaut "crew" since this was the first time that the U.S. had launched two astronauts in the same capsule. The Gemini Program was designed to prepare the way for lunar missions by demonstrating the feasibility of rendezvous and docking two spacecraft. There were 10 manned flights in the Gemini Program.
Aug 1965 - Construction of the first stretch of the Crawlerway, between the Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Pad 39A, was completed. Consisting of two 40-foot-wide lanes separated by a 50-foot median, the Crawlerway was designed to support the 17,000,000 pound load of a Transporter carrying a Mobile Launcher and Apollo-Saturn V.
27 Jan 1966 - The first of three Mobile Launchers was moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building. Weighing in at 10,500,000 pounds, the Mobile Launchers functioned as erection platforms for the Apollo/Saturn Vs and launch stands for the vehicle at the pads. These same refurbished Mobile Launchers are used today in the Space Shuttle program and are called Mobile Launch Platforms.
25 May 1966 - The first Apollo/Saturn V, a facilities test model, was rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building atop a 6,000,000 pound Transporter, a public sign that the Apollo Program was well under way. Each of the two Transporters, built by the Marion Power Shovel Co., had a load capacity of 12,000,000 pounds, and when loaded, could traverse the Crawlerway between the VAB and the pad at a top speed of one mile per hour. Today, these same "Crawler-Transporters" are used to move the Space Shuttle stacks atop their Mobile Launcher Platforms out to the pads for launch.
27 Jan 1967 - The three-man crew for the first manned Apollo space flight (AS-204) died in an accident at 6:31 p.m. EST at KSC's Launch Complex 34. A flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 capsule mated to a Saturn IB during the first major dress rehearsal for the mission, scheduled for launch on Feb. 21. The crew included Virgil I. Grissom, the second American to fly in space in the Liberty Bell 7; Edward H. White II, the first American to walk in space during Gemini IV; and Roger B. Chaffee, preparing for his first space flight. The unmanned Apollo flights continued on schedule, but the manned flights were delayed for 18 months as needed safety changes were made.
9 Nov 1967 - One of KSC's two new pads at Launch Complex 39, Pad A, was used for the first time to launch the first Saturn V on Apollo 4, the first launch in the Apollo Program. This powerful three-stage vehicle, towering over previous launch vehicles at 363 feet, produced more than seven-and-one-half million pounds of thrust, equal to about 180 million horsepower. This was also the first time that one of the firing rooms in KSC's Launch Control Center was used. Constructed between March 1964 and May 1965, the LCC won the 1965 Architectural Award for the Industrial Design of the Year.
11 Oct 1968 - Apollo 7, the first manned launch in the Apollo Program, was a "101 percent successful" mission. The crew included Walter Schirra, Don Eisele, and Walt Cunningham. The spacecraft's performance in Earth orbit was flawless, including eight firings of the spacecraft's primary propulsion system and the first live television broadcast from a manned space vehicle. It was the last launch from Complex 34 with all subsequent Apollo launches taking place from Complex 39.
16 July 1969 - The launch of Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission, took place precisely on time at 9:32 a.m. EDT by a Saturn V. The Lunar Module touched down in the Moon's Sea of Tranquility at 4:38 p.m. EDT, July 20, and Commander Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface at 10:56 p.m. EDT that evening, followed by Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11 attained the national goal, set by President Kennedy in 1961, of landing men on the Moon and returning then safely to Earth within the decade of the 1960s. + View video feature
19 Dec 1972 - The USS Ticonderoga picked up the crew of Apollo 17, the last Apollo lunar landing mission, marking the completion of the Apollo Program. The crew included Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and civilian Harrison Schmitt, Ph. D., a geologist. Launch took place 12 days earlier on Dec. 7. A total of 243 pounds of lunar rocks and soil samples were collected.
14 May 1973 - The launch of Skylab 1, NASA's first space station, took place at 1:30 p.m. EDT. During its lifetime, it was inhabited by three three-man crews, each crew's stay being longer than the last. Altogether, the three crews traveled 70.5 million miles inside Skylab over the 171 days, 13 hours, and 14 minutes they spent orbiting the Earth. Skylab re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at 12:37 p.m. EDT, July 11, 1979, near southeastern Australia, after more than six years in orbit.
29 May 1973 - Florida Gov. Reuben Askew signed a legislative enactment which restored the name of the geographic cape to Cape Canaveral from Cape Kennedy, a name it had held for almost ten years. The U.S. Department of the Interior's Board of Geographical Names followed suit on Oct. 9.
28 Jan 1975 - Lee R. Scherer officially assumed his duties as the second KSC director. During the four and one-half years he was at the helm, KSC launch teams assembled, tested, and launched 66 space vehicles with a 97 percent success rate. He oversaw launches in the Apollo-Soyuz, Viking and Voyager programs. NASA Administrator Dr. Robert Frosch selected Scherer to fill the vacant position of associate administrator of External Relations at NASA Headquarters in August 1979.

15 July 1975 - Both the Soviet Soyuz and American Apollo spacecraft participating in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project launched on July 15. The spacecraft docked on July 17 and undocked on July 19. This first cooperative space initiative between Russians and Americans included four transfer operations between the two spacecraft and five completed experiments. The crews also provided television views of the interior of the two spacecraft, and demonstrated various aspects of space operations. The Soyuz crew landed safely on July 21 and the Apollo crew on July 24, nine days after launch. + View video feature
Sept 1979 - Richard G. Smith was named the third KSC Director. He spent his entire career in the space program, serving in positions of increasing responsibility at Redstone Arsenal, Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters, and finally, at KSC. During his tenure, he oversaw the first launch in the Space Shuttle Program. He retired from NASA on July 31, 1986, to take a job in the private sector.
24 Mar 1979 - The first Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, arrived at KSC and spent 610 days being prepared for launch in one of the twin bays in the Orbiter Processing Facility. This facility built specifically to support the Space Shuttle Program, houses and protects the orbiters during most of the time they spend on the ground.
12 Apr 1981 -The world watched as a spacecraft that looked like a plane roared out of Earth's atmosphere. NASA's Space Transportation System known as the Space Shuttle became the world's first re-useable spacecraft. It launched from the newly refurbished and modified Pad A, at Launch Complex 39. The launch team also used two entirely new sets of computers, called the Launch Processing System. Commander John Young and Pilot Robert Crippen, the crew of STS-1, took Space Shuttle Columbia on a 2 day journey around the Earth. This successful mission ended when the Shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. + View video feature
11 Feb 1984 - For the first time, following the completion of STS 41-B, the Space Shuttle landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF). Specifically designed for returning Space Shuttle orbiters, the SLF opened for business in 1976. Longer and wider than the runways at most commercial airports, the paved runway is 15,000 feet long with a 1,000-foot overrun on each end. Today, the SLF is the preferred end-of-mission landing site, with Edwards Air Force Base in Calif. standing by as the prime alternate site.
5 Dec 1986 - The major construction had been completed and the finishing touches were being made to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) in KSC's industrial area. It was designed to support hazardous payload operations such as loading fuel and oxidizer aboard satellites. Until this time, these tasks were conducted in facilities on the Cape Canaveral Air Station. The PHSF is considered a customer-operated facility with the customer assuming responsibility for most of the day-to-day operations in the facility.
28 Jan 1986 - Pad B at Launch Complex 39 was used for the first time in the Space Shuttle Program to launch Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS 51-L. Approximately 73 seconds after its launch at 11:38 a.m. EST, an explosion occurred causing the loss of the orbiter and its crew.
1 Sept 1987 - Lt. Gen. Forrest S. McCartney was named the fourth KSC Director. After a distinguished 35-year military career, his tenure at KSC was dominated by engineering and operational responsibilities during the Space Shuttle Program. He oversaw the program's safe return to flight in Sept. 1998 following the Challenger accident in 1986. He left the helm at KSC on Dec. 31, 1991, to work in the private sector.
29 Sept 1988 - Space Shuttle flights resumed after an extensive investigation into the STS 51-L accident and an assessment of the Space Shuttle program was conducted. Mission STS-26 launched at 11:37 a.m. EDT and featured the successful deployment of Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-3.
24 Apr 1990 - Space Shuttle Discovery launched on mission STS-31 at 8:33:51 a.m. EDT. The mission featured the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, the first of NASA's Great Observatories to reach orbit.
11 Apr 1991 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on mission STS-37 at 9:22:44 a.m. EST. The primary payload, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, was deployed on the third day of the mission. Compton was the second of four large earth-orbiting telescopes to be launched in NASA's Great Observatories program.
3 Sept 1991 - A third Orbiter Processing Facility bay was dedicated. The former Orbiter Modification and Refurbishment Facility, which had been used for off-line orbiter inspection, modifications and repair work, was converted using existing service structures and work platforms transported to KSC from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Vandenberg was scheduled to be used as a launch and processing facility for Shuttle polar orbiting missions prior to the Challenger accident.
1 Jan 1992 - Robert L. Crippen was named the fifth KSC Director. An astronaut with four Shuttle flights under his belt, including an assignment as pilot of the first orbital test flight of the Shuttle, his tenure with NASA spanned a 26-year period. He left NASA in Jan. 21, 1995, to work in the private sector.
22 Sept 1993 - Space Shuttle Discovery, with Commander Frank Culbertson at the controls, landed at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility at 3:56:11 a.m. EDT following the conclusion of mission STS-51. This was the first time a Shuttle landing had taken place at KSC at night.
23 June 1994 - The Space Station Processing Facility, which serves as the central preflight checkout and processing point for elements of the International Space Station, was dedicated. Construction of the 457,000-square-foot facility began in April 1991. It includes clean rooms for processing Space Station elements with supporting control rooms and laboratories, and office space to accommodate over 1,000 employees.
22 Jan 1995 - Jay F. Honeycutt was named the sixth KSC director. His career spanned almost the entire human space flight program, beginning at the Redstone Arsenal in 1960. During his tenure at KSC, it was "business as usual," with Honeycutt overseeing 16 successful Shuttle launches. He left KSC in March 1997 to work in the private sector.
7 June 1995 - The first piece of hardware to be processed for flight in the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) arrived at KSC. It was the Russian Docking Module, which was attached to the Mir space station during STS-74. It acted as an orbiter interface with the station for the remaining six Shuttle/Mir rendezvous flights scheduled. This was also the first time that Russian space program personnel, approximately 50 in all, were involved in the final assembly and testing of hardware inside KSC's restricted perimeter.
2 Mar 1997- Roy D. Bridges, Jr., was named the seventh KSC director. A former retired Air Force Major General and Space Shuttle pilot, he left KSC to become the director of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., effective Aug. 10, 2003.
23 June 1997 - The first piece of International Space Station hardware scheduled to be processed for flight at KSC, Node 1or the Unity connecting module, arrived on center. It was transported to the clean room in the Space Station Processing Facility where it was prepared for flight on mission STS-88.
29 July 1997 - The Kennedy Space Center Road Map, a bold plan for KSC's future through the year 2025, was unveiled. In it, Center Director Bridges and the Senior Management Council outlined a slow, deliberate transition from an operational role to a development role for its civil service work force as NASA proceeds toward commercialization of its major programs.
24 Oct 1997 - KSC was designated lead center for acquisition and management of Expendable Launch Vehicle Launch (ELV) Services for the agency. The KSC team manages all NASA ELV launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Kodiak Island in Alaska, Kwajalein Island in the Pacific, or elsewhere.
Aug 1998 - Repainting began of the Vehicle Assembly Building in celebration of NASA's 40th anniversary on Oct. 1. It was the first time that the American flag, originally added to the building in celebration of America's 200th birthday in 1976, had been repainted. The Bicentennial Emblem was replaced with the NASA logo, affectionately known as the "meatball."
4 Dec 1998 -The first Space Shuttle mission dedicated to the assembly of the International Space Station was launched from Pad 39A at 3:36 a.m. EST. During the mission, the STS-88 crew joined the 12.8-ton Unity connecting module to the Zarya control module already on orbit. + View video feature
23 July 1999 - Space Shuttle Columbia launched on mission STS-93 at 12:31 a.m. EDT. The mission was the first Space Shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman and featured the deployment of the Chandra X-ray Observatory on the first day of the mission. Chandra was the third of four large earth-orbiting telescopes to be launched in NASA's Great Observatories program.
8 Feb 2001 - A ground breaking ceremony, attended by dignitaries including Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush, was held for a construction project that included the Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory (SERPL) and a new roadway. The project was enabled by a partnership and collaboration between NASA and the State of Florida to create a vital resource for international and commercial space customers. SERPL is considered a magnet facility, and will support the development and processing of life sciences experiments destined for the International Space Station. SERPL was since renamed the Space Life Sciences Lab and was ready for occupancy in October 2003.
5 Mar 2001 - For the first time, two Space Shuttle orbiters, atop modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, returned to their home base at Kennedy Space Center on the same day. Atlantis arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility about 10:45 a.m. EST; Columbia touched down on the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station around 2:30 p.m. Atlantis' ferry flight was required by a landing in California Feb. 19 following the STS-98 mission; Columbia was returning from a 17-month-long modification and refurbishment process, a routine maintenance down period, in Palmdale, Calif.
1 Feb 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia and her seven-member crew were lost over east Texas during her landing descent to KSC at the conclusion of STS-107, a microgravity research mission, which was her 28th flight. Approximately 83,800 pieces of debris, representing 38 per cent of Columbia's dry weight, was recovered and analyzed in the Reusable Launch Vehicle hangar at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility, converted to the Columbia Reconstruction Hangar for the project. Following the conclusion of the investigation into the accident, the debris was moved into storage on the 16th floor of the Vehicle Assembly Building on Sept. 15. The storage location was chosen to allow access to the debris for use in aerospace research. + View Web site
June/July 2003 - The new millennium brought about leaps and bounds in space exploration beyond our world. NASA launched an ambitious mission to Mars in 2003. Two Mars rovers were launched from Cape Canaveral to explore the possibility that life once existed on the red planet. The rovers, named "Opportunity" and "Spirit," will act as robotic geologists equipped with special cameras and tools to examine the history of climate and water in two locations. The mission will give young explorers an opportunity follow the Rovers' progress. The Mars Exploration Student Data Team has 51 participating schools - where students will work with mentors from the Mars science team and aid in data analysis. The rovers will reach the planet in 2004. + View video feature
10 Aug 2003 - KSC Deputy Director James W. Kennedy succeeded Roy D. Bridges to become the eighth director of the John F. Kennedy Space Center. Kennedy is a mechanical engineer who formerly served as the deputy director of NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala Source: NASA