Kennedy's 1961 goal of a crewed lunar landing by 1970 required an expansion of launch operations. In December 1959, the Department of Defense transferred 5,000 personnel and the Missile Firing Laboratory to NASA to become the Launch Operations Directorate under NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Since 1949, the military had been performing launch operations at what would become Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. There is also a Visitor Complex on site that is open to the public. Among the unique facilities at KSC are the 525-foot (160 m) tall Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking NASA's largest rockets, the Launch Control Center, which conducts space launches at KSC, the Operations and Checkout Building, which houses the astronauts dormitories and suit-up area, a Space Station factory, and a 3-mile (4.8 km) long Shuttle Landing Facility. There are about 700 facilities and buildings grouped throughout the center's 144,000 acres (580 km 2). Since 2010, the center has worked to become a multi-user spaceport through industry partnerships, even adding a new launch pad ( LC-39C) in 2015. Īdditionally, the center manages launch of robotic and commercial crew missions and researches food production and in-situ resource utilization for off-Earth exploration. Starting with the fourth Gemini mission, the NASA launch control center in Florida ( Mercury Control Center, later the Launch Control Center) began handing off control of the vehicle to the Mission Control Center in Houston, shortly after liftoff in prior missions it held control throughout the entire mission. Though the first Apollo flights and all Project Mercury and Project Gemini flights took off from the then-Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the launches were managed by KSC and its previous organization, the Launch Operations Directorate. The management of the two entities work very closely together, share resources and operate facilities on each other's property. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). Launch operations for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Since December 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of human spaceflight. 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. GAO noted that: (1) NASA routinely reviews major procurement activities' schedule milestones, the age and value of incomplete contract actions, bid protest disposition, progress in meeting its small disadvantages business contracting goals, and the number, value, and competitive status of procurement obligations (2) NASA plans to improve the system used to monitor its response to GAO recommendations (3) NASA procurement officials appropriately follow up on and recommend corrective actions for known and suspected contract management problems (4) NASA self-assessment process can more effectively monitor the entire procurement process if its procurement centers had additional guidance and information (5) NASA headquarters and its centers need to develop a system for collecting and using customer satisfaction metrics to measure customer service and improve the coordination between procurement and program offices and (6) recent efforts to improve and streamline the procurement process may help NASA cope with staff reductions, but additional large reductions could adversely affect support capabilities and increase agency vulnerability to waste, fraud, and abuse.The John F. GAO reviewed the National Air and Space Administration's (NASA) contract management procedures, focusing on the areas that NASA has made progress in and the areas that it needs to improve.
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