58 a
The first photograph features an uncrewed test flight of the Saturn I SA-3 booster from Launch Complex 34 at Cape Canaveral on November 16, 1962.

The second photograph shows Pad Abort Test 1, a mission to investigate the effects on the Apollo spacecraft during an abort from the pad. The launch escape system (LES) had to be capable of pulling the spacecraft away from a possibly exploding rocket while it sat on the pad. The flight featured a boilerplate (BP-6) Apollo spacecraft, the first mission to feature one. The PA-1 Test took place at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on November 7, 1963.

58 b
A famous photograph showing the two major politics and science visionaries who made the U.S. Moonlanding possible.

President John F. Kennedy, right, gets an explanation of the Saturn launch system from Dr. Wernher von Braun, center, as they look at the Saturn I SA-5 rocket on Pad 37 at Cape Canaveral on November 16, 1963, six days before the President’s assassination. NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans is to the left of von Braun. A model of the Saturn I SA-5 space vehicle is in the foreground.

In a speech at Brooks AFB in San Antonio, Texas, on November 21, 1963, the day before he was assassinated, president John Kennedy identified this launch as the one which would place US lift capability ahead of the Soviets, after being behind for more than six years since Sputnik.
He said: “And in December, while I do not regard our mastery of space as anywhere near complete, while I recognize that there are still areas where we are behind – at least in one area, the size of the booster – this year I hope the United States will be ahead.”

“At least in one area, the size of the booster – this year I hope the United States will be ahead.”
President John F. Kennedy

58 c
President Kennedy (center) is seated with NASA officials including (from left to right) George Low, Kurt Debus, Robert Seamans, James Webb, Hugh Dryden, and Wernher Von Braun. They are briefed on Project Apollo by George Mueller and Rocco Petrone (not pictured).

This was the last visit of the President to the Florida Space Center. After Kennedy’s assassination six days later on November 23, 1963, his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, suggested to President Johnson that renaming the Cape Canaveral facility would be an appropriate memorial for the President who had set the goal of landing on the Moon. From 1963 to 1973, Cape Canaveral became Cape Kennedy when President Lyndon Johnson by executive order renamed the area, announced in a televised address six days after the assassination, on Thanksgiving evening.

58 d
This rocket’s launch was critical because it would place US lift capability ahead of the Soviets.

The fifth Saturn I flight vehicle is seen on its pedestal at Launch Complex 37, Cape Kennedy. The vehicle was successfully launched January 29, 1964.

SA-5 was the first launch of the Block II Saturn I rocket and was part of the Apollo program. The major changes that occurred on SA-5 were that for the first time the Saturn I would fly with two stages - the S-I first stage and the S-IV second stage. For the first time in the Apollo program, this flight would be an orbital mission. This was possible because of the upgraded first stage and the addition of the second stage.