Kennedy Space Center Cape Canaveral, Florida

Set amid 150,000 acres of marshland and mangrove swamp, Kennedy Space Center has been the headquarters of American space exploration since the launch of the unmanned Bumper 8 research rocket in July, 1950. Eleven years later, Alan Shepard lifted off from the Cape’s Pad 5 to become the first American in space, and in July, 1969, Apollo 11 blasted off from Pad 39A, carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon.