New Life for Old Control Center

After crumbling and rusting away for decades, the historic control center that launched John Glenn on America’s first manned orbital flight is back in business. The newly refurbished blockhouse at Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Air Station was dedicated as an Air Force conference center. Several hundred people attended the dedication of the domed blockhouse, whose 10-foot-thick, reinforced concrete walls protected launch controllers from possible explosions of the Atlas rockets blasting off a mere 1,000 feet away. Periscopes through the concrete provided safe views of launches.