KSC-2012-3724

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Throughout the past 50 years, NASA's Kennedy Space Center has carried on America's legacy of processing, testing and launching a wide array of rockets and spacecraft to distant planets and other destinations in space. Launch vehicles, from left, include the Mercury Atlas, Gemini Titan, Apollo Saturn V, Atlas, Delta and the space shuttle. Across the top, a Mercury spacecraft is checked out in Hangar S at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, an Apollo countdown is monitored from a Launch Control Center Firing Room, and mission managers celebrate the launch of the final space shuttle mission -- STS-135. In the lower right, STS-129 mission specialists Randy Bresnik, left, and Leland Melvin indicate they are "go for launch" as they prepare to enter space shuttle Atlantis from the White Room. Also in the image are human destinations the center helped NASA reach, including Earth's orbit, the International Space Station and destination beyond. Image credit: NASA