Media tours Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where US space program began

When Spanish explorers back in the 1500s were out venturing and discovering the swampy lands and marshes that became known as the premier gateway to space, they decided to name it "Cabo Cañareal," meaning "sugarcane plantation" in Spanish. 

Little did they know, some 400 years later, the U.S. would embark on another heavy quest to send humans where they have never gone before — beyond the outer reaches of Earth.

In the past 60 years since the inception of the space program, America has launched some of its legends to outer space from the historic pads here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Now, it continues to become a vibrant space community that sits alongside some of America's historic launch sites. 

Whether it's from Launch Complex 5, where first Americans in space — Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom — took their historic flights, or at Launch Complex 14 where Mercury 7 astronaut John Glenn made America's first orbital flight aboard the Friendship 7 capsule, or even at Launch Complex 19, where all the Gemini launches blasted off from, the height of the U.S. space program began here along the Space Coast.

On Friday, some of the media had the opportunity to tour some of these monumental pads. There, they photographed the remains of Launch Complex 34, where the crew of Apollo 1 died in a fire during testing back in 1967, as well as documenting the beehive blockhouses, unique to the Cape, where teams would conduct testing for the Air Force's Minuteman ballistic missiles back in the day. 

Contact Jaramillo at 321-242-3668 or antoniaj@floridatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AntoniaJ_11.