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Space program

Brevard County in the space boom: 23,653 people in 1950, 230,006 in 1970

Brevard grew from 23,653 people in 1950 to 111,435 in 1960, the fastest-growing county in the United States that decade, and to 230,006 by 1970. Then growth stalled. What the census and a 1966 study for NASA show about the boom and what followed Apollo.

By The Old Space Coast Team Updated October 15, 2026
The crawler-transporter carrying the Apollo 11 Saturn V and mobile launcher up the ramp to Launch Complex 39A, May 20, 1969.
The crawler-transporter delivers the Apollo 11 Saturn V to Launch Complex 39A on May 20, 1969. Rollout began at 12:30 p.m. and ended at 7:46 p.m. NASA/KSC (KSC-69PC-0234) via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Brevard County had 16,142 people in 1940 and 23,653 in 1950. In 1960 the census counted 111,435, an increase of 371.1 percent in ten years, and a 1966 study for NASA called Brevard “the fastest growing county in the United States” in that decade. By 1970 the count was 230,006. The rockets did that.

The missile range, 1948 to 1958

The boom started a decade before NASA. The study, written by Florida State University’s Institute for Social Research, traces it to “the 1948 decision to locate the United States long range guided missile program on Cape Canaveral.” The Air Force took over the Banana River Naval Air Station as the base and headquarters of its Eastern Test Range, a range that ran almost 10,000 miles downrange into the Indian Ocean, and the base was renamed Patrick Air Force Base in August 1950. The first missile launch from the Cape came the same year.

By 1955, the authors wrote, the test center’s effect reached in all directions; in Orlando, 50 miles away, it was described as “creating a boom comparable to that of 1925.” Florida as a whole grew 78.7 percent in the 1950s and the United States 18.5 percent. Brevard grew 371.1.

Wernher von Braun standing beside the five F-1 engines of a Saturn V first stage.
Wernher von Braun beside the five F-1 engines of the Saturn V test vehicle at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The engines were developed by Rocketdyne under the direction of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville; the finished rockets flew from Brevard. NASA via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

NASA and the moon program

NASA began operating in Brevard in 1958. In 1963, according to the study, it acquired 88,000 acres on Merritt Island for the launch center of the moon program, and major federal activity began shifting north from Patrick. In a survey of newcomers who had arrived in the previous two years, the study found Melbourne had drawn 56.8 percent of them and Titusville 25.1 percent, and it expected the north county to take the largest share of growth to come.

The census bore that out. Between 1960 and 1970 the county doubled, and the places nearest the new launch complex grew fastest:

Place19601970
Brevard County111,435230,006
Melbourne11,98240,236
Titusville6,41030,515
Merritt Island (unincorporated)3,55429,233
Cocoa12,29416,110
Rockledge3,48110,523
Cocoa Beach3,4759,952
Mims (unincorporated)1,3078,309

Some of the growth was annexation. Of Titusville’s 30,515 residents in 1970, the Census Bureau counted 22,713 in areas the city had annexed during the 1960s.

The Apollo 11 Saturn V on its mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39A, May 1969.
The Apollo 11 Saturn V on Pad 39A on May 20, 1969, eight weeks before launch. NASA via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

After Apollo

The 1980 census shows how abruptly the growth stopped. Through the 1970s, the decade the moon landings ended, most of the boom towns barely moved:

Place19701980
Titusville30,51531,910
Merritt Island (unincorporated)29,23330,708
Cocoa16,11016,096
Rockledge10,52311,877
Cocoa Beach9,95210,926
Melbourne40,23646,536

Cocoa had 14 fewer people in 1980 than in 1970. Titusville, which had grown almost fivefold in the 1960s, added fewer than 1,400. The growth that did come went south: Palm Bay counted 18,560 people in 1980, against 6,927 in 1970, and kept climbing to 62,632 by 1990.

The county never stopped growing for long. At the 2020 census it had 606,612 people, more than 25 times its 1950 count.

Further Reading

Sources

  1. Annie Mary Hartsfield, Mary Alice Griffin and Charles M. Grigg, eds., Summary Report: NASA Impact on Brevard County (Florida State University, 1966), NASA Technical Reports Server
  2. U.S. Census Bureau, 1970 Census of Population, Number of Inhabitants: Florida, Tables 6 and 7
  3. U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 CPH-2-11, Population and Housing Unit Counts: Florida, Table 10
  4. U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts (2020 census counts)

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apollo 1950s 1960s 1970s population census