Image of the Day : Kennedy Space Center

This GeoEye-1 satellite image of Kennedy Space Center image was taken before the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery which is one of the retired satellite orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States,and was operational from its maiden flight, STS-41-D on August 30, 1984, until its final landing during STS-133 on March 9, 2011. Discovery has flown more than any other spacecraft having completed 39 successful missions in over 27 years of service.

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the United States launch site that has been used for every NASA human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for the U.S. government’s civilian space program from three pads at the adjoining Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Its Vehicle Assembly Building is the fourth-largest structure in the world by volume and was the largest when completed in 1965.

Located on Merritt Island, Florida, the center is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Miami and Jacksonville on Florida’s Space Coast. It is 34 mileslong and roughly 6 miles wide, covering 219 square miles. A total of 13,100 people worked at the center as of 2011. Approximately 2,100 are employees of the federal government; the rest are contractors.

GeoEye-1 satellite photo of Space Shuttle Discovery befor the launch at Kennedy Space Center