A History of the Kennedy Space Center (review)

On December 21, 1968, three astronauts began a mission designed to demonstrate translunar injection and a host of technical goals to move the Apollo Program forward. The flight of Apollo 8 began as an American space mission and ended as a voyage for all of humanity to share. For the first time, humans would see their home planet as a blue marble in the vast sea of space. It was a voyage that departed from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

A History of the Kennedy Space Center fills a void within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)–sponsored history series. The work is the final volume documenting the establishment and operation of the agency’s major centers and has been long overdue. This is a history of the KSC that chronicles the operations of NASA at the center; it is not an encompassing volume providing the contributions of the hundreds of contractors and tens of thousands of their employees.

In essence, this is an institutional history, and the authors provide an effective account of the NASA side of the space adventures that originated at KSC from the center’s inception to the current Space Shuttle program. Authors Lipartito and Butler do acknowledge that during the Apollo build-up “seven-eighths of those working at KSC were contractors” (118), but it is unfortunate that there was not a greater inclusion of the contractor perspective in this book. The list of contractors who contributed to the history made at KSC is lengthy and their roles diverse: North American, Grumman, IBM, Boeing, General Dynamics, Wackenhut, Rockwell International, Planning Research Corporation, United Space Alliance, and many others.

As authors sponsored and funded by KSC, Lipartito and Butler were provided extensive access to the various archive resources at the center. The authors conducted sixty-three interviews for this work and note that those recorded are now held at the KSC archives. They also utilized oral history from interviews stored at the NASA Headquarters History Office, the Johnson Space Center, and the KSC archives, the latter of which includes a series of interviews conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s of key KSC officials. Although they conducted or consulted numerous oral histories for this book, the majority of the interviewees are NASA officials. A greater number of contractor voices would have added to the work.

While the interviews augment the traditional written research resources, oral history is not a focal resource of the book. This is not a history of KSC told through the narration of the interviewees, nor was it intended to be. But given several of the greatest accomplishments of the twentieth century set forth from the center and the excitement surrounding these events, the inclusion of more words from the participants would have provided more heart and soul at key moments in the book. Although there is a list of the individuals interviewed in the “Notes on the Sources” section, it would be helpful for readers to have affiliations and titles included alongside these names.

A History of the Kennedy Space Center provides an academic look at the operations and internal workings of the Kennedy Space Center. It builds upon the solid foundation set forth by 1978’ s Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations by Charles D. Benson and William Barnaby Faherty. Moonport is now available as a University of Florida Press reprint in two volumes: Gateway to the Moon and Moon Launch!