# @nasaartemis on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/1a31gYGh20
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/15348103-nasaartemis-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/19fdb61f02.jpg
- **Posted:** 2015-04-13T15:19:04.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA Artemis (@nasaartemis) — https://gondola.cc/nasaartemis

## Caption

With so much constantly happening at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, we thought we’d post one of our favorite photos from KSC that tells a little bit of a different story about America’s spaceport… Many people don't know that Kennedy Space Center is also a National Wildlife Refuge.

Since August of 1963, Merritt Island's National Wildlife Refuge has shared a common boundary with the John F. Kennedy Space Center on the east coast of Florida. Just south of launch pad 39A, manatees graze protected in a sanctuary in the northern end of Banana River. Between May and September, thousands of endangered sea turtles come ashore on this barrier island in the dark of night to lay their eggs. Merritt Island's strategic location along the Atlantic Flyway provides a resting and feeding place for thousands of wading birds, shorebirds, and songbirds. Diverse habitats that include brackish marshes, salt water estuaries, and hardwood hammocks provide homes to an amazing diversity of more than 500 species of wildlife — including frogs like this one peering in to one of the buildings. 
Today these 220 square miles are managed by the Dept. of the Interior as a National Wildlife Refuge and National Seashore.

nasa nasakennedy #wildlife #kennedy #spaceport #merrittisland #florida #frog #space #launch #landmarks #usa

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 1,329
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- **Comments:** 13

## Tags

launch, space, frog, landmarks, wildlife, spaceport, merrittisland, kennedy, florida, usa

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