Cape, eastern Florida, U.S. It is the location of NASA 's John F. Kennedy Space Center and the launch site of U.S. spaceflights, which included the first U.S. manned spaceflight (1961), the first lunar-landing flight (1969), and flights of the space shuttle Challenger , which exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986.
After the death of Pres. John F. Kennedy in 1963, it was renamed Cape Kennedy; it reverted to its original name in 1973.