This display describes Explorer 1, the first satellite launched by the United States. On either side, note the labels “FIRING ROOM A” and “FIRING ROOM B”: originally, this blockhouse had one firing room for each of its two associated launch pads. This allowed the control and telemetry equipment to be specialized for the two different rocket designs being launched here. The equipment in firing room B was left in close to its original state (although many of the lamps have been rewired); the original contents of firing room A were scrapped, and the Burroughs ground-based guidance computer for the Atlas and Thor Able—salvaged from another launch complex, possibly LC-11 or LC-18—was put on display here.
Copyright 2011, Garrett Wollman. All rights reserved. Photograph taken 2011-02-26.