Launch Control Center

The Launch Control Center is a four-story building located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida used for the supervision of launches from Launch Complex 39. In practice, this means that the LCC handles all American manned space flights. Attached to the southeast corner of the Vehicle Assembly Building, the LCC contains offices; telemetry, tracking and instrumentation equipment; the automated Launch Processing System; and four firing rooms.Launches have been conducted from the LCC since the unmanned Apollo 4 launch on November 9, 1967; its first manned launch was Apollo 8 on December 21, 1968.Firing roomLaunch operations are supervised and controlled from the firing room. Responsibility for the booster and spacecraft remains with the LCC until the booster has cleared the launch tower, when responsibility is handed over to the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center.Extensive renovation of Firing Room 4 was finished in 2006.Key personnelLaunch Director (LD)The Launch Director is the head of the launch team, and is responsible for making the final "go" or "no go" decision for launch after polling the relevant team members.Flow Director (FD)The Flow Director is responsible for the preparation of the spacecraft for launch, and remains in the LCC in an advisory capacity.