Editorial photo #9330300 Science and Technology

Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A

Up close image of a sunburst above the flame diverter in launch complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida USA. Each panel in the flame diverter weighs more than 2,000 lbs. This pad was originally built for the huge Apollo/Saturn V rockets that launched American astronauts on their historic journeys to the moon and back. Following the joint U.S.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission of July 1975, the pads were modified to support space shuttle operations. additional design was added to support the concept of mobile launch operations, in which space vehicles are checked out and assembled in the protected environment of the Orbiter Processing Facility and the Vehicle Assembly Building, then transported by large, tracked crawlers to the launch pad for final processing and launch. The pad most recently hosted the launch of Artemis 1 for the historic return to the moon. (Photo by George Wilson/NurPhoto)