Modern day space centres have developed from missile test ranges since the Second World War. The most well known space centre is Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. This site was for a brief spell known as the Kennedy space centre in honour of John F Kennedy, the assassinated American president, until 1974 when it reverted to its former name of Cape Canaveral.
Cape Canaveral has seen the launching of the Apollo missions, Skylab and the space shuttle. Rockets are taken to the launching tower on a slow moving vehicle called the crawler. The launch tower, as well as keeping the rocket stable, has umbilical maintenance links to mission control and a lift which allows the astronauts to board.
As the rocket takes off, the tremendous heat generated is deflected downwards and then horizontally along a blast trench. The umbilical links to the tower are automatically disconnected and the launch tower angles away from the rising rocket - a truly spectacular sight!
