CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA will host a ceremony to officially turn over the Launch Control Center’s Firing Room 1 from the Space Shuttle Program to the Constellation Program on Sept. 25 at 10 a.m. EDT at the Kennedy Space Center. The room has undergone demolition, construction and been outfitted with consoles for the upcoming Ares I-X rocket flight test targeted for launch on Oct. 31.

As the center of launch operations at Kennedy since the Apollo Program, the Launch Control Center, or LCC, has played a central role in NASA’s human spaceflight programs. Firing Room 1 was the first operational firing room constructed.

From this room, controllers launched the first Saturn V, the first crewed flight of Saturn V, the first crewed mission to the moon and the first space shuttle. Firing Room 1 will continue this tradition of firsts when controllers launch the Constellation Program’s first flight test. Also, this firing room will be the center of operations for the upcoming Ares I and Orion operations.

U.S. reporters without permanent Kennedy credentials must apply online by 12 p.m. on Sept. 24 at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

Media representatives planning to attend must arrive at Kennedy’s news center by 9 a.m., Sept. 25, for transportation to the ceremony.

To follow Ares I-X processing on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Ares_I_X

For more information about Ares I-X and NASA’s next-generation spacecraft, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ares