Launch Control Center
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LC-39 Launch Control Center
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Nearest city | Titusville, Florida |
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Coordinates | 28°35′7″N 80°38′59″W / 28.58528°N 80.64972°WCoordinates: 28°35′7″N 80°38′59″W / 28.58528°N 80.64972°W |
MPS | John F. Kennedy Space Center MPS |
NRHP Reference # | 99001645 |
Added to NRHP | January 21, 2000 |
The Launch Control Center (LCC) is a four-story building located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida used for the supervision of launches from Launch Complex 39. In practice, this means that the LCC handles all American manned space flights. Attached to the southeast corner of the Vehicle Assembly Building, the LCC contains offices; telemetry, tracking and instrumentation equipment; the automated Launch Processing System; and four firing rooms.
Launches have been conducted from the LCC since the unmanned Apollo 4 (Apollo-Saturn 501) launch on November 9, 1967; its first manned launch was Apollo 8 on December 21, 1968.
Launch operations are supervised and controlled from the firing room. Responsibility for the booster and spacecraft remains with the LCC until the booster has cleared the launch tower, when responsibility is handed over to the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center.
Extensive renovation of Firing Room 4 was finished in 2006.
The Launch Director is the head of the launch team, and is responsible for making the final "go" or "no go" decision for launch after polling the relevant team members.
The Flow Director is responsible for the preparation of the spacecraft for launch, and remains in the LCC in an advisory capacity.
The NASA Test Director is responsible for all pre-launch testing, whether involving the flight crew, the orbiter, the external tank/solid rocket booster, or ground support equipment. The NTD is also responsible for the safety of all personnel on the pad after fuelling has occurred. Reports to the Launch Director.
The Orbiter Test Conductor is in charge of all pre-flight checkout and testing of the orbiter, and manages the engineers in the firing room who monitor the orbiter's systems. OTC is an employee of a contractor rather than of NASA.
The Payload Test Conductor is responsible for the pre-flight test and checkout of payloads carried by the orbiter and manages the engineering and test teams responsible for monitoring and controlling payload ground operations. PTC is a contractor member of the Space Shuttle Team.