Google Street View Lands at Kennedy Space Center

Google’s Street View has taken you to Antarctica, the Amazon, inside famous museums.

Now, Street View is boldly going where (almost) no one has gone before: Mission-critical sites at Florida’s John F. Kennedy Space Center.

The search giant teamed up with NASA to create Google’s largest special collection of Street View photos featuring 6,000 panoramic views of NASA’s historic site for its space-faring missions.

You can use Street View to check out exterior views of the decommissioned Space Shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour, take a peek at Launchpad 39A, tour Launch Firing Room #4, and even view classic space vehicles such as the Apollo 14 Command Module. Google has also outfitted the “Street View man” with a spacesuit when you check out parts of the Kennedy Center.

Here are some of the highlights:

Launchpad 39A

This Launchpad has been the lift-off point for numerous historic space missions, including the Apollo 11 moon landing and STS-1, the first Space Shuttle Mission in 1981.

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Built to replace Challenger, NASA’s shuttle that exploded shortly after takeoff in 1986, Endeavour arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in 1991 and blasted off for its first mission in 1992.

Endeavour was named after an 18th-century British vessel captained by explorer James Cook. Now decommissioned, Endeavour is headed to the California Science Center in Los Angeles around mid-September.

Firing Room 4

Originally a conference room, Firing Room 4 became the primary control room for shuttle missions beginning with STS-121 in 2006.

Space Station Processing Facility

This 457,000 square foot building is the final checkpoint for U.S.-launched hardware headed to the International Space Station.

The structure includes two processing bays, an airlock, operational control rooms, laboratories, logistics areas, office space, and a cafeteria.

Apollo/Saturn V Center

Open to the public, the Apollo/Saturn V Center is a museum dedicated to the Apollo missions and the Saturn V rockets they rode to get into space.

The Center features a massive Saturn V rocket. Designed to get humans from Earth to the moon, these 363-foot monsters were 60 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, and weighed 6.2 million pounds (the equivalent of 400 elephants, according to NASA) when fully fueled and ready for liftoff.

To check out the Kennedy Space Center on your own get started at maps.google.com/nasa.

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