Operations and Checkout Building facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Operations and Checkout Building
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Aerial view of the Operations and Checkout building at KSC, c. 2017
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 Location in Florida
Location in the United States
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| Location | Brevard County, Florida, USA |
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| Nearest city | Titusville, Florida |
| Built | 1964 |
| Architect | Charles Luckman |
| Architectural style | International |
| Visitation | Open, requires sponsorship by NASA employee |
| MPS | John F. Kennedy Space Center MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 99001636 |
| Added to NRHP | January 21, 2000 |
The Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, often called the O&C, is a special historic building located in Merritt Island, Florida. It's a big five-story building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. This building is where astronauts get ready for their space missions, including sleeping in dorms and putting on their space suits. It also has a huge workshop where parts of spacecraft are built and tested. It became a recognized historic place in the U.S. on January 21, 2000.
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A Building for Space Missions
When the O&C building was first built in 1964, it was called the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building. It was used to get spacecraft ready for the Gemini and Apollo missions. Later, during the Space Shuttle program, its name changed to the Operations and Checkout Building, or O&C for short.
Testing Spacecraft in Chambers
In 1965, two special rooms called altitude chambers were added to the building. These chambers were used to test how the Apollo Command/Service Module and Lunar Module would work in space. They could make it feel like being 250,000 feet (about 76 kilometers) above Earth.
These chambers were very tall, about 58 feet (17.7 meters) high. They were safe for humans and could reach space-like conditions in just one hour. Astronauts used these chambers for all crewed missions from the Apollo 1 mission in 1966 to the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.
From Shuttles to Orion
After the Apollo program, the O&C building continued to be important.
- In the 1980s and 1990s, the building was used to prepare Spacelab science modules. These modules flew into space aboard the Space Shuttle.
- Later, in the late 1990s and 2000s, parts of the International Space Station were checked out here. This included large modules and trusses.
On January 30, 2007, NASA announced that the building would be used for the Constellation program. It would become the main place to put together the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Florida helped by providing money to clear out old equipment. The building was updated between 2007 and 2009. After that, Lockheed Martin took over the facility for Orion production. The Orion spacecraft for Artemis 1 was assembled here before it was ready for launch.
The building was officially renamed the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building in 2014. This was on the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which Neil Armstrong commanded.
Gallery
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The O&C in 1984
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Astronauts would exit here to board the Astrovan for transport to Launch Complex 39.
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Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin on the morning of July 16, 1969.
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The spacecraft workshop number 1.
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Orion Spacecraft in the workshop of the Operations and Checkout Building.
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Astronauts sleep prior to launch day in dormitories in the Operations and Checkout Building.
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Astronauts have suit-up flight preparations in the building.
