While the highway continues beyond the station gate (as Samuel C. Phillips Parkway) to the launch pads of the Kennedy Space Center, the state designation no longer does, as civilians and most military personnel not assigned to the station are generally not permitted beyond the gate.
History
Before the construction of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral SFS, the current SR 401 was a segment of SR A1A that extended from Fort Pierce to Playalinda Beach; afterwards, but before the completion of the Bee Line, SR A1A continued northward along Atlantic Avenue into Cape Canaveral, then turning westward onto George King Boulevard and then northward onto (present-day) Samuel C. Phillips Parkway and ending at the station's gate. When the Bee Line's eastern extension was opened to traffic in June 1956, SR A1A was shifted over to Astronaut Boulevard and the new toll road, and the former alignment was given the SR 401 designation (with SR 401 having its northern terminus at an intersection with SR 405 and the then-SR 402 in Cape Canaveral AFS).[2] The section of SR 401 passing through the City of Cape Canaveral eventually lost its route signs and designation (becoming County Road 401 in the process), resulting in the current, much-shortened configuration of SR 401.
