Why 1 July holds great significance for NASA's Kennedy Space Center - Florida and the mission to the Moon

President Kennedy's address - "We Choose to Go to the Moon..." (Pic credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

(Speech at Rice University Stadium in Houston, Texas, President John F Kennedy standing at the lectern. Delivered, "Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort" - a speech famed for the line "We Choose to Go to the Moon, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.")
 

On this Day (1 July) in 1962, NASA's Kennedy Space Center was inaugurated. On July 1, 1962, NASA officially activated the Launch Operations Center at the seaside spaceport. 

Then US president John F. Kennedy's 1961 goal of a crewed lunar landing by 1970 required an expansion of launch operations. It was on this day in 1962 that the Launch Operations Directorate was separated from the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). KSC then became the Launch Operations Center (LOC). 

Also, Cape Canaveral - the old site - was inadequate to host the new launch facility design required for the mammoth Saturn V rocket, which would be assembled vertically in a large hangar and transported on a mobile platform to one of several launch pads. Therefore, the decision was made to build a new LOC site located adjacent to Cape Canaveral on Merritt Island.

Kennedy and the success of US Space missions:
NASA website says, on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade.

His speech at Rice University Stadium in Houston, Texas is famed for the line "We Choose to Go to the Moon, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

A number of political factors affected Kennedy's decision and the timing of it. In general, Kennedy felt great pressure to have the United States "catch up to and overtake" the Soviet Union in the "space race." Four years after the Sputnik shock of 1957, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space on April 12, 1961, greatly embarrassing the US. While Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, he only flew on a short suborbital flight instead of orbiting the Earth, as Gagarin had done. In addition, the Bay of Pigs fiasco in mid-April put unquantifiable pressure on Kennedy. He wanted to announce a program that the US had a strong chance at achieving before the Soviet Union. After consulting with Vice President Johnson, NASA Administrator James Webb, and other officials, he concluded that landing an American on the Moon would be a very challenging technological feat, but an area of space exploration in which the US actually had a potential lead.

NASA began land acquisition in 1962. The major buildings in KSC's Industrial Area were designed by architect Charles Luckman. Construction began in November 1962, and Kennedy visited the site twice in 1962, and again just a week before his assassination on November 22, 1963. 

On November 29, 1963, the facility was given its current name by Kennedy's successor President Lyndon B. Johnson under Executive Order 11129.

Two women to head JSC-Houston and KSC-Florida:
On the eve of the 59th anniversary of the inauguration of the Kennedy Space Senter, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has named Vanessa Wyche director of the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Janet Petro director of Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Wyche has served as the acting director of Johnson since May 3 and Petro has served as the acting director of Kennedy since May 17.

“Both Vanessa and Janet are exceptional leaders who will help propel NASA forward as we venture farther out into the cosmos than ever before,” said Nelson. “It’s an incredible time at NASA, and with Vanessa and Janet leading the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers, NASA will embark on a new era of space exploration – starting with the Artemis I launch to the Moon later this year.”

“I’m humbled and honoured to be chosen to lead the more than 10,000 employees at Johnson Space Center, who work each day to enhance scientific and technological knowledge via space exploration to benefit all of humankind,” Wyche said. "... I look forward to working with everyone as we push forward to the Moon and inspire a new generation of explorers to reach for the stars.”

“It’s an honour to be selected to lead Kennedy Space Center,” Petro said. “Having grown up on Florida’s Space Coast and being the second generation in my family to work at Kennedy Space Center, it’s truly exciting to help grow the multi-user spaceport as we prepare for Artemis and continue launching commercial crew missions to the International Space Station.”