KSC-00PP-1434

In the early morning, flocks of birds soar over the Banana River, whose waters reflect the Vehicle Assembly Building , bathed in a pink glow from post-dawn light. Next to the VAB, on the left, is the Launch Control Center. The rectangular building closer to the water at left is the Operations Support Building. At right is the Rotation/Processing Facility. The birds are a common sight at KSC since the Center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge encompasses 92,000 acres that are a habitat for more than 331 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds, as well as a variety of insects.