The Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) (previously known as the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building) is a historic building on

Merritt Island, Florida Merritt Island is a peninsula, commonly referred to as an island, in Brevard County, Florida, United States, located on the eastern Floridian coast, along the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the name of an unincorporated town in the central and sout ...

, United States. The five-story structure is in the Industrial Area of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding ...

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

. Its has twin-block facilities that include the crew quarter dormitories for

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally ...

, suit-up preparations prior to their flights, and the other is a large spacecraft workshop used for manufacturing and checking activities on crewed spacecraft. On January 21, 2000, it was added to the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Apollo program

When it was originally built in 1964 to process spacecraft in the

Gemini Gemini may refer to: Space * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac ** Gemini in Chinese astronomy * Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program * Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Northe ...

and

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

era, it was known as the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building. It was renamed the Operations and Checkout Building during the Shuttle program, known informally as the O&C.

Altitude test chambers

Apollo 1 crew prepare to enter their spacecraft in the altitude chamber at Kennedy Space Center

In 1965, a pair of altitude chambers were installed in the High Bay for testing the environmental and life support systems of both the

Apollo Command/Service Module The Apollo command and service module (CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. The CSM functioned as a mother sh ...

and

Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed ...

at simulated altitudes of up to . Each chamber is high (with a clear working height of ) and an interior diameter of , were human-rated, and capable of reaching the maximum altitude (minimum pressure) in one hour. These were used by the prime and backup crews of all crewed missions, from the ill-fated

Apollo 1 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbit ...

in October 1966, through to the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in July 1975.

Post-Apollo use

During the 1980s and 90s the O&C building was used to house and test

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...

science modules before their flights aboard the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. I ...

. In the late 1990s and 2000s, some modules and trusses for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

were checked out in the building. On January 30, 2007, NASA held a ceremony to mark the transition of the building's high bay for use by the

Constellation program The Constellation program (abbreviated CxP) was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and ...

. The building would serve as the final assembly facility for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. In preparation for the transition, the state of Florida provided funds to clear the facility of about of steel stands, structures and equipment. Renovations totaling $55 million took place from June 2007 through January 2009, at which point

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

became the operator of the facility for Orion production. The Orion spacecraft for

Artemis 1 Artemis 1, officially Artemis I and formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis 1 marked the return of the agency to lunar exploration original ...

completed its assembly in this location and was moved to the

Multi-Payload Processing Facility The Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) is a facility at Kennedy Space Center constructed by NASA in either 1994 or 1995 and used for spacecraft and payload processing. Prior to being assigned the role of processing the Orion spacecraft, t ...

on January 16, 2021. The Crew Module of the Orion spacecraft for

Artemis 2 Artemis 2 (officially Artemis II) is the second scheduled mission of NASA's Artemis program, and the first scheduled crewed mission of NASA's Orion spacecraft, currently planned to be launched by the Space Launch System (SLS) in May 2024. Th ...

is under assembly in the building's high bay as of August 28, 2021. The building was renamed to the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building in a ceremony on the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11 (2014).

Gallery

File:KSC Operations and Checkout Building.jpg, The O&C in 1984 File:KSC Operations and Checkout Building - Astrovan exit area.jpg, Exit door from Operations and Checkout Building connector. A nearby doorway on the adjacent north wall of the rear building is where Astronauts would board the Astrovan for transport to

Launch Complex 39 Launch Complex 39 (LC-39) is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, United States. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built as the Apollo program's "Moonport" and later ...

File:Apollo 11 crew at van for transfer to launch pad.jpg,

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, and ...

crew members

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...

, Michael Collins, and

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 Ap ...

on the morning of July 16, 1969 File:Spacecraft_Workshop_no.1_at_KSC.jpg, The spacecraft workshop number 1 File:Orion_Spacecraft_in_spacecraft_workshop_KSC.jpg, Orion Spacecraft in the workshop of the Operations and Checkout Building File:O&C_dormitory.jpg, Astronauts sleep prior to launch day in dormitories in the Operations and Checkout Building, in this case a bedroom is undergoing renovations File:Leland_Melvin_during_Suit-up_preparations.jpg, Astronauts have suit-up flight preparations in the building

Notes

External links

Operations and Checkout Building
at NASA.gov

at the National Register of Historic Places
KSC building reborn as 'Spacecraft Factory of the Future'
Florida Today * {{NASA space program Kennedy Space Center Buildings and structures in Merritt Island, Florida Manufacturing plants Manufacturing buildings and structures Manufacturing plants in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Brevard County, Florida Historic American Engineering Record in Florida 1964 establishments in Florida Neil Armstrong