Now this is my kind of garden! The history of the early years of the US space program conducted by NASA are on display in the rocket garden at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Here you can see the Mercury-Redstone, Atlas and Titan rockets that first put US Astronauts into space.
The Mercury-Redstone rockets were used from 1960 to 1961 as part of the Mercury Program and put the first and second US Astronauts into space (May 5th, 1961 Alan Shepard and July 21st, 1961 Gus Grissom – the first man into space was Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who launched on April 12th, 1961 and orbited Earth once aboard Vostok 1). Prior to these launches the rocket was tested with an empty capsule twice in late 1960 (the first launch on November 21st was aborted due to an electrical fault but the December 19th launch was successful) and again on March 24th, 1961.
The Mercury-Redstone rocket was also used to send Ham the Chimpanzee into orbit on January 31st, 1961. He was the first great ape to be launched into space. I can only imagine the terror the poor little guy went through but luckily he made it back to earth with just a bruised nose and took his place in history!
Whilst visiting the Kennedy Space Centre I decided to take an additional tour out to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where the early rocket launches were made. You visit the Air Force Missile Museum along with some of the original launch site complexes including such as Space Launch Complex 5/6 where Alan Shepard was first launched into space on March 6th, 1961. This was really cool and worth the extra fee to take in the historic nature of these early rocket launches (especially the launch bunkers).
The Atlas rocket was developed from a 1950’s Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and between 1962 to 1963 Atlas rockets launched the first American Astronauts into orbit of the Earth as part of the Mercury-Atlas Program. John Glenn was the first American to make this orbital journey when he was launched into space on February 20th, 1962 aboard “Friendship 7“. He orbited the Earth 3 times in a journey lasting 3 hours and 55 minutes (he also became he fifth American into space during that mission). Amazingly later versions of the Atlas rocket continue to be used by the military to deploy space assets and are planned to be in use until 2020!
Titan rockets were developed from an ICBM and were operated from 1959 to 2005. The Titan was the primary rocket used in the 10 manned launches of the Gemini Program from 1965 to 1966 (the goal of this project was to develop space travel techniques in support of the Apollo moon landings. The name arises from the fact that 2 Astronauts were within the spacecraft capsule). Later they were used to launch scientific probes and military/CIA satellites into space.
The Saturn 1B rocket was the predecessor to the Saturn V rocket that took man to the moon. It had a long history with NASA and was launched numerous times from 1966 to 1975. Missions included unmanned suborbital and orbital test missions, manned orbital missions and ferrying the first crews to the Skylab space station orbital workshop.
Sadly on January 27th, 1967 three astronauts died during a Saturn 1B command module fire in a dress rehearsal for a planned Apollo 1 low earth orbital launch on February 21st, 1967 (this mission was to be the first manned launch in the moon landing program). The men lost included the second American into space Gus Grissom along with Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee.
The final mission using a Saturn 1B was the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project on July 15th, 1975 which docked a NASA spacecraft with a Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft (they conducted joint scientific experiments and the mission provided useful docking training that was used later on for the Mir and International Space Stations). This also ended the NASA manned space program until the entry of the Space Shuttle in April 1981.
An essential stop of any visit to the Kennedy Space Centre is the mighty Saturn V multi-staged liquid fuelled rocket. This is the space vehicle that took man to the Moon and back on the Apollo missions between 1967 – 1972 (first flight 1967, first manned flight 1968, six Moon landings 1969 – 1972 by Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17) and also launched the Skylab space station (3 missions between 1973 – 1974). You cant help but be overwhelmed by the size of a Saturn V rocket as you walk around and below it.
Whilst walking around the rocket garden and visiting the other rocket displays you get a real appreciation for how quickly the space program advanced in just a few short years. It is impressive to see all these historic rockets in one place and also to visit the launch sites were space travel history was made. The Astronauts who went into space and also those that were sadly lost aboard these rockets truly had the “right stuff“.