When it issue forth to sending people to theMoon , a stack of focus is on the rocket , the math , and the astronauts . However , the incredible machinery that was NASA in the sixties also required some more down - to - Earth logistics . The space agency had to acquire land on Merrit Island in Florida in the former 1960s to build what would become the Kennedy Space Center ( KSC ) – and on it , there was a beach house that would become an important fixedness in the itinerary to the Moon .
The beach family , which became cognise as Kennedy ’s Beach House , was just one of the many structures already present on Merrit Island . They were all buy for $ 31,500 – but unlike the relief , one was spare from destruction . This became the Astronaut Training and Rehabilitation Building , where crew member could spend fourth dimension and even stay overnight if they wanted to .
“ The Beach House was exceptionally significant in the lives and training of America ’s spaceman from 1963 to the present . Throughout its history as a NASA holding , the Beach House was reserved for astronaut ’ role as a place to lie from their intense training programme and as a refuge before launches , ” areportby the Historic American Buildings Survey by the National Park Service pronounce about the facility .
NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan looks over the beach while standing at the Beach House at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on 29 January 2025. Image Credit: NASA/Daniel Casper
“ During the Space Shuttle era , the Beach House hosted special meal and gathering where theastronautswere able to like their spouses and families farewell before risking their lives for America ’s infinite program . The Beach House stands alone among KSC ’s historical resources , most of which served the technical panorama of launching spacecraft , as a place that serve the basic human pauperism of NASA astronauts . ”
The mansion was damaged well by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 . When it was reopened in 2018 , it had undergone some substantial renovations , installing better facilities such as a new kitchen , bathrooms , and new connectivity as well as turn the upstairs into a more definitive league room where NASA employees can encounter to discourse projects .
There is still evidence of its importance to the astronauts thanks to a series of souvenir left by the undivided former visitor . A vino bottleful collection is displayed in one of the room at the beach family . The place is still being used – so theArtemiscrew , the next mathematical group that will undertake the stumble to the Moon , might also get to relish its secrecy .
“ The Beach House has been used as a league center since the end of the Shuttle Program . As such , it is open to NASA employees for group meeting and other military mission - related gatherings . It will likely always be the standard by which astronauts judge their advancement on the journey to space , ” Mary MacLaughlin , Public Affairs Specialist of the NASA Kennedy Space Center , told IFLScience .
Sometimes , the best position to get ready for doing something unbelievable is a slight house by the seashore .
" This is sacred sand out here , it really is . It ’s where people have made those concluding goodby , and some were final . There ’s no better half , no spaceman walks that sand that does n’t know , that there is a possibility that this is forever , " NASA astronaut Mike Mullane said in2010 .
" As a spouse , you know you ’re number out here to say goodbye , and you do n’t know if it ’s the last clock time , " added his wife Donna .
