Operations and Checkout Building

ISS US lab being manufactured and hoisted to a vacuum test chamber in the O&C

The Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) (previously known as the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building) is a factory located at Kennedy Space Center.

The building was built in 1964, and made from reinforced concrete and steel.

Its purpose is to make and test out rocket parts such as the Apollo Command/Service Module, Lunar Module, Space Shuttle Spacelab modules, and truss components for the International Space Station. Once manufacturing and check-testing is complete, the spacecraft modules or space stations are checked out of the factory to the SSPF or the Vehicle Assembly Building for integration and launch.

The O&C is actually a two-part building with connected overhead walkways. The front building is where astronauts live in dormitories before launching into space. It also has a few conference rooms, several laboratories, and a restaurant. The rear building is where the spacecraft manufacturing workshop is located.

In 2014, the O&C was named in honor of the first man on the moon: Neil Armstrong.

Operations And Checkout Building Media

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  The Apollo 1 crew, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, enter their spacecraft for a test in the O&C altitude chamber on October 18, 1966.

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  Kennedy Space Center Operations and Checkout Building

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  Exit door from Operations and Checkout Building connector. A nearby doorway on the adjacent north wall of the rear building is where Astronauts would board the Astrovan for transport to Launch Complex 39

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  Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin on the morning of July 16, 1969

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  The spacecraft workshop number 1

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  Orion Spacecraft in the workshop of the Operations and Checkout Building

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  Astronauts sleep prior to launch day in dormitories in the Operations and Checkout Building, in this case a bedroom is undergoing renovations

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  Astronauts have suit-up flight preparations in the building