Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

This is the most historic and important site in the U.S. Space Program. The coastal military base has dozens of launch complexes, used for all of the large-scale rockets developed in the USA. Landmark launches include the first U.S. satellite, the first U.S. astronaut, the first U.S. orbiting human, the first unmanned lunar landing, the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (Mariner 9), and the first man-made object to leave the Solar System (Voyager 1).  Though manned missions were transferred to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in 1968, located on Merritt Island on the northern edge of Cape Canaveral, the Air Force complex is still busy, serving as the main East Coast space launch facility, used for most U.S. satellites destined for a geosynchronous orbit. Vandenberg Air Force Base, on California's coast, is the sister of Cape Canaveral, and is used to launch polar orbiting satellites. Currently four to five launch complexes are in regular use at the Cape, but other work goes on here as well, administered by Patrick Air Force Base at its southern end. Some of the historic launch complexes are visitable on tours from the NASA Visitor Complex, and through the Air Force Space and Missile Museum, located at Launch Complex 26.