Launch Control

One of the major things Kennedy Space Center does is launch vehicles into orbit. For the shuttle this is done from a building called the Launch Control Center, or LCC. I didn't have a good picture of the outside of the building, so the model below will have to do.


Emma's Astronaut and I entered through the main lobby in the LCC. After a launch this room is full of people celebrating a successful start of the latest NASA mission and enjoying a KSC tradition: the after launch beans and cornbread. Nobody I have asked has ever been able to tell me how it started, so I was very happy to find the answer here.


This is Emma's Astronaut in the lobby next to the model I used for my LCC picture. The LCC is the small white building to the right. The big one is the VAB, which I'll talk more about on another stop.


Along the north wall of the lobby are plaques for all of the NASA missions. Each has the mission patch in the middle and the launch and landing dates underneath.


There's also a great mural running along the south wall.


One of the other cool things scattered around the building are the whiteboards. For every launch the astronauts' kids are given a large whiteboard where they can draw pictrures and leave messages for their parents going into orbit. Later they get framed and hung up somewhere to remember the mission. This hallway on the 4th floor of the LCC is covered with them.



The LCC has 4 rooms that can be used to launch a vehicle into space. We call these the firing rooms. Right now one is under construction so it can be used for the new rockets NASA is building, but the other three are being used to watch and talk with the orbiters: Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour. This is Emma's Astronaut outside of Firing Room #3.

Inside there are computers everywhere, with one station for each part of the shuttle that has to be watched. This picture is from the very back of Firing Room #3 looking toward the station (or console) for Flight Control.



Next we walked across the hall to Firing Room #4, which was recently remodeled. This is the room they have used for the last few launches and will be using again for STS-117 in March.



Emma's Astronaut says "Flight Control is Go."


And we have lift-off!