Page 16 - Camden County Annual Report 2015

Citizens, Nature, and Space Coexist

The refuge traces its beginnings to the develop- According to Frank
ment of the nation’s Space Program. In 1962,
NASA acquired 140,000 acres of land, water, and DiBello of Space
marshes adjacent to Cape Canaveral to establish
the John F. Kennedy Space Center. NASA built a Florida, Georgia can
launch complex and other space-related facilities,
but development of most of the area was not offer a clean slate
necessary. In1963 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service signed an agreement to establish the where the appropriate
refuge and in 1975 a second agreement
established Canaveral National Seashore. Today, requirements of
the Department of Interior manages most of the
unused portions of the Kennedy Space Center as a NASA and the military
National Wildlife Refuge and National Seashore.
will never impact the
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Florida
commercial schedule.

That cannot be

offered at Kennedy

Space Center or

Cape Canaveral Air

Green sea turtle with launch pad in the background. Force Station.

This scene plays out every spring at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in "Even though it is a very unusual marriage between
Florida, but it's not a sleek space vehicle that's taking off this morning: technology and nature, the marriage has lasted more
It's a fledgling American bald eagle.
than 40 years," explains longtime ranger Dorn
Kennedy is best known as a gateway to space. Its landscape is dotted
with towering launch pads and support facilities filled with high-tech Whitmore. "And one of the species that really benefits
hardware. But the launch complex has a wild side. The space center is the bald eagle."
shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge,
established in 1962 and operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The refuge provides a protected habitat for migratory birds and
endangered and threatened species.

Anna Heiney NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Image to the right: Two bald eagles are seen here in their nest at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where they return each year to breed.
The landmark Vehicle Assembly Building is visible in the distance at
top right. (Image credit: NASA/KSC)

View of an Atlas V Rocket launching from SLC-41, about 4.75 miles Across the Chanel from Chincoteague Island Virginia
away from Playalinda Beach, Florida (part of the Canaveral National is NASA ‘s Wallops Flight Facility (Goddard Space
Seashore and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge). Flight Center) where people gather year around to
watch private company launches that deliver supplies
14 to the space station.

Associated Press, Chincoteague Virginia