Is this a launch site or a zoo?

As we all know, the Kennedy Space Center in the United States is a world-famous space launch center, where there are towering launch towers, high rocket assembly plants, deafening engine roars, and spectacular scenes of rockets rising from the ground. But did you know that it is not only a spacecraft launch site, but also a beautiful home for many rare animals and birds.

Unique geographical location

The Kennedy Space Center is located on the Florida Peninsula in the United States. This peninsula extends from the North American continent into the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In the middle of its east coast, there is a triangular cape protruding into the Atlantic Ocean - Cape Canaveral. The name comes from Spanish explorers. When they came here in the 17th century, they found that it was a sharp corner land full of sugar cane, so they called it Cape Canaveral. In Spanish, "Canaveral" means "sugar cane reclamation land."

Kennedy Space Center with numerous launch towers

Many years ago, Cape Canaveral was a place where few people visited. Swamps, sand dunes and orange groves could be seen everywhere. But in the eyes of missile developers, this is an ideal place to test missiles. First, it is closer to the equator than any other place in the United States. When launching missiles and rockets, they can better use the rotation of the earth to increase their flight speed. Second, there are many islands in the sea area of ​​more than 8,000 kilometers to its southeast, which is a good place to set up tracking and monitoring stations. Third, it faces the ocean and has about 16,000 kilometers of open sea, which is an ideal flight area for missiles to fly, and if there is an accident during the launch, it will not cause serious safety problems. Due to these unique conditions, the US military designated Cape Canaveral as a missile test site in 1947 and launched the first missile on July 24, 1950. Since then, the military has built dozens of launch pads and built Cape Canaveral into the most important launch site in the United States, conducting a large number of missile and rocket flight tests. Missiles such as "Jupiter", "Thor", "Atlas", "Hercules", "Polaris" and "Minuteman", as well as launch vehicles such as "Redstone", "Scout", "Jupiter-C" and "Saturn" were all launched from here.

In the early 1960s, NASA also took a fancy to this place. In order to meet the launch needs of Apollo manned spacecraft, NASA expropriated 324 square kilometers of land on Merritt Island to build the Kennedy Space Center. Merritt Island covers an area of ​​380 square kilometers and faces Cape Canaveral across the Banana River. After its completion, the Kennedy Space Center quickly became an important base for spacecraft testing, testing, assembly and launch, and successfully launched Apollo manned spacecraft, Skylab, interstellar probes, space shuttles, and various application satellites.

Animal park outside the launch site

In stark contrast to the spectacular sights of rockets roaring and space shuttles taking off, the Kennedy Space Center is usually quiet, beautiful and picturesque. Located in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, it is full of rivers, ponds and lakes, with lush vegetation and fresh air. In addition, it is located between the warm currents of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, with spring-like weather all year round and a pleasant climate, making it a home for wild animals. There are more than 310 bird species, 117 fish species, 25 mammal species, and 65 amphibians and reptiles living here. Another 23 migratory water birds use the swamps and open waters of the refuge as wintering areas, while blue herons, great egrets, white storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other birds use this place as a year-round habitat. Therefore, it is easy for people to see various rare and exotic birds living in the reeds, raccoons and wild boars in the bushes, rabbits and antelopes chasing on the grass, alligators cruising in the lake, and ferocious crocodiles climbing up the river bank to bask in the sun. If you are lucky, you may even spot rare animals such as bald eagles and peregrine falcons.

Animals around Kennedy Space Center

Most of these animals are used to space launches and generally do not interfere with rockets. Only a few animals occasionally cause some trouble. In 1995, such a ridiculous thing happened. NASA was originally scheduled to launch the Discovery Space Shuttle on June 8 to carry out the STS-70 flight mission, release a tracking and data relay satellite, and conduct a number of life science and biomedical experiments. However, three days before the launch, NASA suddenly decided to postpone the launch and decided to withdraw the Discovery Space Shuttle from the launch pad to the assembly plant, delaying the launch to mid-July. At the same time, it decided to launch the Atlantis Space Shuttle ahead of schedule after the Discovery Space Shuttle. This temporary change in the launch plan was not due to any technical problems with the space shuttle, but because of a naughty woodpecker. The woodpecker pecked more than 70 holes with a diameter of 6 to 100 mm on the insulation foam layer of the Discovery Space Shuttle's external propellant tank. Because they were more than 40 meters high, the launch crew could not go up to repair them, so they had to postpone the launch and send the Discovery Space Shuttle back to the assembly plant. At that time, the space shuttle had been in use for 14 years, and launch delays due to various reasons were common, but this was the first time that the launch was delayed due to damage to the Woodpecker.

Birds fly around the space shuttle Atlantis as it prepares for its third mission

In order to drive away woodpeckers and prevent them from damaging the space shuttle again, the Kennedy Space Center placed six plastic owls on the launch pad more than a week before the Discovery space shuttle was launched again, played recorded owl calls, and blew the whistle loudly to prevent the woodpeckers from coming again.