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Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

1963 establishments in FloridaIUCN Category IVLandforms of Brevard County, FloridaMerritt Island, FloridaNational Wildlife Refuges in Florida
Protected areas established in 1963Protected areas of Brevard County, FloridaWetlands of Florida
Birds at Merritt Island NWR
Birds at Merritt Island NWR

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is a 140,000-acre (57,000 ha) U.S. National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) on the Atlantic coast of Florida's largest barrier island. NASA's Kennedy Space Center and visitor complex are also situated on the island and NASA can restrict access to the refuge based on its operational needs. The NWR contains over 1000 species of plants, 117 species of fish, 68 amphibians and reptiles, 330 birds, and 31 mammal species, of which 21 species are listed as endangered by the state of Florida or by the US federal government. Management of the NWR is provided through the Merritt Island NWR Complex, which provides hiking and driving trails for the public, subject to access restrictions from NASA. It is a 'gateway site' for the Great Florida Birding Trail.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
Kennedy Parkway,

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Wikipedia: Merritt Island National Wildlife RefugeContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 28.516666666667 ° E -80.666666666667 °
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Kennedy Parkway

Kennedy Parkway

Florida, United States
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Birds at Merritt Island NWR
Birds at Merritt Island NWR
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Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station is the primary launch site for the Space Force's Eastern Range with three launch pads currently active (Space Launch Complexes 37B, 40, and 41). The facility is south-southeast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island, with the two linked by bridges and causeways. The Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Skid Strip provides a 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runway close to the launch complexes for military airlift aircraft delivering heavy and outsized payloads to the Cape. A number of American space exploration pioneers were launched from CCSFS, including the first U.S. Earth satellite (1958), first U.S. astronaut (1961), first U.S. astronaut in orbit (1962), first two-man U.S. spacecraft (1965), first U.S. uncrewed lunar landing (1966), and first three-man U.S. spacecraft (1968). It was also the launch site for all of the first spacecraft to (separately) fly past each of the planets in the Solar System (1962–1977), the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (1971) and roam its surface (1996), the first American spacecraft to orbit and land on Venus (1978), the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn (2004), and to orbit Mercury (2011), and the first spacecraft to leave the Solar System (1977). Portions of the base have been designated a National Historic Landmark for their association with the early years of the American space program.Cape Canaveral was known as Cape Canaveral Launch Area upon its foundation in 1949, but renamed to LRPG Launching Area in 1950. It was known as Cape Canaveral Auxiliary Air Force Base from 1951 to 1955, and Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex from 1955 to 1964. The facility was later known as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station from 1964 to 1974, and as Cape Canaveral Air Force Station from 1974 to 1994 and from 2000 to 2020, taking the designation Cape Canaveral Air Station from 1994 to 2000. The facility was renamed "Cape Canaveral Space Force Station" in December 2020.