From which NASA center did all orbital Space Shuttle launches take place?

All orbital Space Shuttle launches took place from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The center’s Launch Complex 39 supported the shuttle fleet from the first launch in 1981 through the program’s final flight in 2011.

Kennedy handled launch preparation and liftoff operations on Florida’s Atlantic coast, while other NASA centers had different responsibilities. Johnson Space Center in Houston managed mission control and astronaut training, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama helped develop major propulsion hardware. Those roles can make the centers easy to confuse.

The shuttle was designed to land like an aircraft, so its landing sites were separate from its launch site. Most missions returned to Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility, while others landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California or, once, White Sands in New Mexico. Vandenberg was prepared for a planned shuttle launch site, but no shuttle ever launched there.