Space Shuttle Launch Control Center

By Marty McDowell/NASA

The Launch Control Center (LCC) is a four-story building that is the electronic "brain" of Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center and is where Space Shuttle launches are conducted.

Attached to the southeast corner of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), it is 5,535 meters (18,159 ft) from Pad 39A . At the time it was constructed, advances in electronics had made it unnecessary to continue locating blockhouses adjacent to launch pads. The first floor contains offices and computer operations. The second floor houses telemetry, RF and tracking, instrumentation, and data reduction and evaluation equipment. The computers of the Central Data Subsystem (CDS), one of the two major components of the Launch Processing System (LPS) that automatically performs most checkout and launch functions, is also on the second floor. The third floor contains the four firing rooms, and each room contains its own copy of the second major component of the Launch Processing System - the Checkout, Control and Monitor Subsystem (CCMS).

The system consoles of the CCMS system are manned by the team which oversees all aspects of a checkout and launch operation. Firing rooms 1 and 3 are configured for full control of launch and orbiter operations while Firing room 2 is usually used for software development and testing. Firing room 4 is only a partial firing room and is primarily used as an engineering analysis and support area for launch and checkout operations.

The fourth floor of the LCC contains conference rooms, offices and mechanical equipment. The LCC is 23.5 meters (77ft) high, 115.2 meters (378ft) long and 55.1 meters (181 ft) wide.

Source: NASA/Kennedy Space Center.

Space References (Videos):
Cosmos. PBS, 2000.
Stephen Hawking's Universe. PBS, 1997.
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Life Beyond Earth PBS, 1999.
The Planets. BBC, 1999.
Understanding The Universe. A&E, 1996.