Rocket Ranch

The era of the Apollo Saturn missions was perhaps the most exciting period in American space exploration history. This book delves deeply into the operations, personnel, and facilities at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) that assembled, tested, and launched the iconic Apollo/Saturn missions of the 1960s and 1970s. Combining technical coverage with a generalist's enthusiasm for space, the volume gathers diagrams and photographs showing facilities that are not generally known to people who did not work at KSC-places such as the "blast room" inside the launch pad, the "ACE Rooms" in the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building, and the Central Instrumentation Facility.§§Rather than focusing on a specific mission, the book follows the general capacity for the Apollo missions at the heyday of activity at KSC. Organizing the process flow necessitated extensive engineering expertise that created a vast network of tailored facilities. The massive launch bases are explored and the sequence of final tests is explicated, culminating in the Countdown Demonstration Test, a dry run for the actual launch. Throughout the book, the infrastructure needs and extensive facilities are illustrated by many archival photographs and plans. A number of engineers and managers from NASA and the Apollo/Saturn contractor teams have contributed their expertise and firsthand experience to the account.§§For anyone who has ever wished they could explore the Launch Control Center, this book provides a complete guide to its facilities and infrastructure as they developed over time.