One of the most storied launch pads in America's space exploration past is now managed by one of the few private transport operations leading the space industry into the future.

Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida -- the lift-off site for a long list of space missions, including Apollo 11, the mission that accomplished the first manned moon landing in July 1969 -- will now support launches by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, the private spaceflight company led by entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also helms electric automaker Tesla Motors.

"Today, this historic site, from which numerous Apollo and space shuttle missions began, and from which I first flew and left the planet on STS-61C on Columbia, is beginning a new mission as a commercial launch site," said Charles Bolden, former astronaut and current head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, during a press conference held at the pad.

NASA signed a property agreement with SpaceX April 14, beginning a 20-year lease for the company, based in Hawthorne, Calif., to occupy and use the launch location -- operating and maintaining it at its own expense.

"Pad 39A is a historic pad, as we all know, and I am so excited that NASA selected us to be one of their partners and also to be their partner in developing 39A as we move forward into the future of space launch," said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer. "We'll make great use of this pad, I promise."

Back in December, SpaceX was picked by NASA officials to lease the facility after the space agency decided it didn't have any more use for the 40-year-old pad.

NASA intends to use Pad 39B, Pad 39A's Apollo-era twin, for future flights of its Space Launch System rockets and Orion capsules that transport astronauts up and away.

Since retiring the space shuttle in 2011, NASA has sought out private companies like SpaceX able to provide commercial launch services to low earth orbit, as well as the International Space Station.