The tour continued heading generally northward towards the Kennedy Space Centre itself basically visiting the sites associated with the manned spaceflight program.

First we stopped at the road leading to the decommissioned LC14 that was used for the Mercury Atlas flights.  It was last used in 1966 to launch the docking targets used by the Gemini program.  Its proximity to the Ocean meant that metal components soon corroded and the metal gantry structures were dismantled in the 1970s though the Blockhouse was restored in the 1990s though it was not visible from the tour bus.  All that remains is this sign, the Mercury Monument and a number of plaques.

Launch Complex 19 used for the Gemini Titan program has similarly been decommissioned and the Service Tower and umbilical demolished were demolished in the 1970s.  There is only this sign to indicate its former glory, I believe it was planned to erect a Gemini Monument similar to the one at LC14 but nothing seems to have come of this.  The Blockhouse remains and was visible from the tour bus - see lower photograph.

The tour then took us to Launch Complex 34 used for the initial launches of the Saturn 1.  LC34 was the scene of the first manned Saturn IB Apollo test flight scheduled for launch on 21st February 1967.  However, on 27th January 1967 a flash fire in the capsule killed the three astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White III and Roger B. Chaffee.  While LC34 was restored to use for the first successful manned Apollo launch (Apollo 7) on 11th October 1968 it was never used again.  Much of the supporting structures were demolished in the 1970s leaving the launch platform standing alone at the centre of the pad as a memorial to the crew of Apollo 1.

Continuing our way back to the Kennedy Space Centre we finally reached signs of life passing Launch Complex 37 which was originally built as a 2 pad launch site for the Saturn IB.  One of the pads LC37A was never used and the second pad LC37B saw its last use in 1968 being deactivated in 1972.  In 2001 it was modified as the launch site for Delta IV operated by United Launch Alliance.

The Then and Now Tour continues on the next page.