THE INSIDE ORBIT: Launch Countdown Clock

As you enter Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex from the parking lot, right before the orange ticket kiosks, take a look to your left. You’ll notice a large digital clock with values for hours, minutes, and seconds.

Perched atop a small hill in front of the entrance, this clock is not just decoration — it’s one of the most watched timepieces in history, second only to Big Ben in London.

If you’ve ever watched an Apollo or space shuttle launch on TV or in internet archives, chances are you’ve seen this clock before. It’s the world-famous NASA countdown clock — the one that stood at the Kennedy Space Center Press Site for over 40 years.

It was installed in 1969, just in time for the Apollo 12 mission (the second time humans landed on the Moon), and wasn’t retired until 2014.

Here’s just a few launches it counted down:

• Every Apollo mission including and after Apollo 12
• The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first international space collaboration
• Skylab, America’s first space station
• 30 years of space shuttle launches, from Columbia to Atlantis
• Four SpaceX’s Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) missions to the International Space Station

• It’s 10 feet (3 m) tall and 26 feet (7.9 m) long
• Each of its six digits is 4 feet (1.2 m) high and 2 feet (0.6 m) wide
• It used 349 light bulbs — that’s 56 bulbs per digit!
• Its final countdown was in 2014 for SpaceX’s CRS-4 mission
• Officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2000

NASA replaced the countdown clock at Press Site with a modern digital display that can stream live video and show full-color graphics, like the kind at a sports stadium.

The old clock was brought to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 2016 and stationed at the entrance to greet incoming guests. For decades, it told the world when to hold its breath. Now, it quietly welcomes—no longer counting down, but standing like a retired astronaut: dignified, storied, and forever part of the journey.