Launch Complex 39-A was also the starting point for many shuttle
flights. Back in the days when the echoes of Saturn V rockets
boomed across the Space Coast, heroes were risking their lives
to go to the moon. In the back of every mind was always the
possibility that the Saturn V could explode during fueling.
"There was about one kiloton of explosion power on that pad,"
Steve Bulloch, from NASA said. That's why subterranean escape
tunnels were built. The tunnels, which are far beneath the tower
of steel and mountain of concrete, feel claustrophobic, smell
dusty and look abandoned. In a worst-case scenario, astronauts
would escape down a slide and shoot into a rubber room inside
the tunnels. From there, the Apollo crew would go into the blast
chamber, with concrete walls 4-feet thick. Read more here
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