john f. kennedy space center brevard county, florida - Environmental ...

NAME(S): Launch Complex 39: Pad A Historic District
FACILITY NO(S): (See Description section for facility numbers of contributing resources)
FLORIDA MASTER SITE FILE NO: 8BR1686
LOCATION: Launch Complex 39 Area
PROPERTY TYPE: Launch Operation Facilities
DATE(S): 1963-1965 (original construction); 1976-1979 (major additions and modifications for
Space Shuttle Program)
ARCHITECT/ENGINEER: Designed by Giffels and Rossetti, Inc., Detroit; built by Blount
Brothers Construction Co. and M.M. Sundt Construction Co.
USE (ORIGINAL/CURRENT): Originally built to support the launch of Saturn vehicles into
space during the Apollo era, Pad A performs the same function for the Space Shuttle vehicle.
HISTORICAL DATA: The Launch Complex 39: Pad A (LC 39A) Historic District was
constructed between 1963 and 1968 by various contractors, including the Blount Brothers
Construction Company of Montgomery, Alabama and the M.M. Sundt Construction Company of
Tucson, Arizona. Facilities built consisted of the launch pad, fuel and oxidizer facilities, camera
stations, electrical equipment buildings, a water chiller facility, an emergency egress facility, and
operations offices. LC 39A was the site of the first Saturn V launch on November 9, 1967 with
Apollo 4. Pad A also served the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 when astronauts Armstrong,
Aldrin, and Collins landed on the moon. In total, LC 39A launched 11 Apollo missions and one
Skylab mission, all using the Saturn V rocket.
Beginning in 1976, LC 39A underwent major modifications to accommodate the Space Shuttle
vehicle. Key alterations to the launch pad included the creation of a Fixed Service Structure (FSS)
and Rotating Service Structure (RSS); new flame deflector, Payload Changeout Room, Payload
Ground Handling Mechanism, hypergol fuel and oxidizer facilities; as well as alterations and
additions to propellant piping and storage, electrical systems, and operational intercom and
television systems. Algernon Blair Industrial Contractors, Inc. of Norcross, Georgia was awarded
a $1.1 million contract in October 1976 which called for the installation of Space Shuttle GSE
including piping, cabling and other equipment, as well as new environmental control system
cooling towers and new hypergolic tanks. Six months later, a $4.3 million contract for
construction of a sound suppression water system was awarded to this firm. Construction of
safety-oriented modifications, including hand rails, additional access platforms, structural
modifications to the RSS, and new safety cages, were provided by Industrial Steel Inc. of Mims
under an October 1978 contract. One year later, Industrial Steel was awarded a contract to
complete modifications to the FSS, with work to be completed by December 15, 1979.
Throughout the LC 39A district, additional electrical equipment and fuel facilities, as well as a
new water tank for the sound suppression system and a flare stack to vent the exhaust produced
during a shuttle launch, were constructed between 1979 and 1985.
On April 14, 1981, LC 39A was the site for the first launch of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-1,
followed by the next 23 launches, including the first American woman, Sally Ride, and the first
African-American, Guion Bluford, in space, through 1985. In September of 1986, in the