Pondering Cape Canaveral, Launch Site of the Intelsat 14 Satellite

If you haven’t seen Cape Canaveral, it is an impressive place. But, you have to be interested enough to peer beneath the scrubby surface to understand its contributions to humankind. The history of the U.S. space program, as well as the strategic missile program, is embedded in the weeds here. Most of the more than 40 launch pads have been decommissioned and abandoned to the savannah, through which wild pigs, armadillos and alligators roam.

In its heyday, “Missile Row” at the Cape must have been a busy place. Today, there’s a decrepit Air Force museum at one of the old Mercury launch pads and a full-size mockup of a rocket that carried Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space, is on display. The rocket is almost incomprehensibly small compared to today’s launchers. The men who climbed into those capsules had great faith and courage.

The area of the launch pads is surrounded by the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a huge brackish estuary with meandering channels, islands, mangrove hammocks and the occasional levee that you can drive upon to observe the wildlife. Some of the nicest deserted Atlantic beaches grace the oceanfront.

The Intelsat 14 satellite launch campaign's Atlas Wet Dress Rehearsal is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 28 October.

(Photos: top, Launch Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral; bottom, launch pads of Cape Canaveral)

~ Contributed by Daniel Lilienstein, Intelsat 14 Program Manager, Space Systems Acquisition, blogging from Cape Canaveral, Florida