Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral is a stretch of coastline and cape on Merritt Iceland, approximately in the middle of the east coast of Florida (USA) in Brevard County. " Canaveral " is the Spanish word for reeds.

In the south of island are the most important space stations in the American space program. On one hand, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC ) NASA, previously run by the all manned rockets of the United States until 1975, the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle by 2011. On the other hand, the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ( CCAFS ) of the U.S. Air Force, of which hosts the unmanned rocket launches with Atlas, Delta, Titan and other missiles. In the 1960s took off from the CCAFS the manned missions of Mercury and Gemini program.

After the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the launch site and the coastline have been renamed in his honor were called and then Cape Kennedy. The name was officially registered in 1964 by the Board of Geographic Names of the U.S. Interior Ministry. Under the local population, the name was never accepted, and in 1973 changed the authorities of the State of Florida the name of the cape back to Cape Canaveral. The KSC retained his name.

Nature Conservation and Tourism

1963 a large part of the island of 567 square kilometers as Merritt Iceland National Wildlife Refuge was placed under strict conservation and management of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The area partially overlaps with the security zone of the KSC. The rest of the island (of around 233 km ²) in 1975 reported under the name of Canaveral National Seashore as a nature reserve and recreation area under the management of the National Park Service. For National Seashore consists of about 40 km of sandy beaches. Large parts of both protected areas are closed for safety reasons in rocket launches for visitors.

162381
de