![]() In 2004, Florida was hit by four - Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne - but it was Hurricane Frances that did the most damage. The Cape has been affected by several hurricanes. Though it's unusual for Cape Canaveral to be hit directly by a hurricane, it is no stranger to hurricanes and their effects. Has the Kennedy Space Center ever been damaged by a hurricane? This new design, however, fully protects all hardware, with wires from the top of the insulated masts running to the ground diagonally, which in turn route the lightning current away from the rocket. While the old system provided a 45-degree cone of protection, it also left a portion of the hardware exposed to potential strikes. These towers stand nearly 600 feet tall - taller than the rocket itself. Unlike the single lightning tower during the shuttle days, this new lightning protection system is made up of three towers that surround the launch pad. (NASA)īut that's their job: to protect a rocket on the pad from being struck directly by lightning. Lightning streaks through the sky around the Apollo 15 stack prior to the Apollo 15 launch on July 26, 1971. ![]() If you launch from the east, and closer to the equator, Earth sort of gives a rocket an extra boost, which also helps save on fuel. They soon realized that launching from Florida held two advantages. First, it capitalized on Earth's rotation. Rockets from New Mexico had to launch pretty much straight up and could only reach an altitude of about 160 kilometres since they needed radar and telemetry stations to track them. Cape Canaveral is the home of the Kennedy Space Center, the hub of the nation’s human space program. However, they soon realized with a burgeoning space program - which included launching at far greater heights than they were at the time - they needed to find a better site. space program was in its infancy, the launch location was actually in White Sands, New Mexico. Driving distance and how to go from Cape Canaveral, Florida to Kennedy. ![]() Launching near the equator allows a spacecraft to take "optimum advantage" of the Earth's rotational speed, NASA notes. Distance between Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center in miles and kilometers. Welcome to Brevard County, known as Floridas Space Coast Home to the world-renowned Kennedy Space Center, where the United States launched its first. Why is it important to be close to the equator?
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