Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
National Register of Historic Places
Historic District
National Historic Landmark
position	Cape Canaveral , Brevard County , Florida
coordinates	28° 29′ 20″ N , 80° 34′ 40″ W Coordinates: 28° 29′ 20″ N , 80° 34′ 40″ W
Built	1948
NRHP number	84003872
Added to the NRHP	April 16, 1984
Declared as NHL	April 16, 1984

Map of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launch pads

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ( CCSFS ) is a US Air Force missile launch site at Cape Canaveral , Florida , just north of Cocoa Beach . During World War II , this area was used by the Air Force as an airfield. The first rocket launches took place here in the 1950s. The first manned space flights of the USA ( Mercury , Gemini and Apollo 7 ) also started here. However, since the flight of Apollo 8 in December 1968, all US manned rockets ( Apollo program andSpace Shuttle ) in NASA 's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to the north-west. Launches are performed in an azimuth range between 35° and 120°, resulting in orbit inclinations between 28 degrees (when launched east) to 57 degrees (when launched northeast).

story

names

In September 1948, the area around Cape Canaveral became operational as the Banana River Naval Air Station. On May 11, 1949, it was selected to expand White Sands (WSMR) launching capabilities in New Mexico .

In honor of US President John F. Kennedy , Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was renamed Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in 1964. In 1973 the base was given its old name again. However, the name was changed again in 1992: the CCAFS was called Cape Canaveral Air Station (CCAS) for eight years. In March 2000, the US Air Force changed the name back to reflect its military status. A year after the creation of the United States Space Force , another renaming to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station took place in December 2020.

operation

The first rocket launch took place on July 24, 1950. A Bumper, an A4 with a WAC Corporal attached, was launched .

The first launch from Cape Canaveral took place on July 24, 1950. Bumper 8 lifted off from CCAFS Launch Complex LC-3 at 14:28 UTC. The Bumper missiles were A4 missiles captured in Germany that were augmented with an American upper stage. This first test flight on July 24 was intended to test hypersonic flight in the upper atmosphere for military purposes.

In the period from 1956 onwards, several launches were carried out with military Jupiter , Vanguard , Thor and Atlas rockets.

On January 31, 1958, the first US satellite , Explorer 1 , was launched into space on a Jupiter rocket. Based on the Redstone and Atlas rockets, Mercury was the first manned program developed under the direction of NASA , which was founded in 1958. The first manned missile ( Mercury-Redstone 3 ) was launched on May 5, 1961 with the Freedom 7 mission for ballistic flight. Based on the Titan 2 , the manned program continued with Gemini .

With the LC-34 and LC-37 , the first pure NASA launch pads for the Saturn/Apollo missions were built on the northern site. Shortly thereafter, the launch complex LC-39 on the adjacent KSC with three launch sites, of which only two were built, was planned for the Saturn V. A test of the Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967 saw a disaster on the LC-34 launch pad, killing the crew ( Virgil Grissom , Edward White and Roger Chaffee ).

Walter Schirra , Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham took off from the LC-34 on October 11, 1968 for the first manned Apollo mission ( Apollo 7 ).

On April 16, 1984, the Air Force Station was listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places and was granted National Historic Landmark status.

launch pads

CCSFS launch sites

launch pad	starting places	rocket type(s)	status	Remarks
Launch Complex 1 (LC-1)	1	snark	inactive
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2)	1	snark	inactive
Launch Complex 3 (LC-3)	1	Bumpers, Bomarc , Polaris , Lockheed X-17	inactive
Launch Complex 4 (LC-4)	1	Bomarc, Redstone, Matador	inactive
Launch Complex 5 (LC-5)	1	Redstone, Jupiter	inactive
Launch Complex 6 (LC-6)	1	Redstone, Jupiter	inactive
Launch Complex 9 (LC-9)	1	Navaho	inactive
Launch Complex 10 (LC-10)	1	Navaho, Alpha Draco , Jason	inactive
Launch Complex 11 (LC-11)	1	Atlas	inactive, under construction	becomes a test bench and later possibly a launch site for the New Glenn
Launch Complex 12 (LC-12)	1	Atlas	inactive
Launch Complex 13 (LC-13)	1	Atlas	inactive/active	National Historic Landmark In use as Landing Zone 1 since 2015 .
Launch Complex 14 (LC-14)	1	Atlas	inactive
Launch Complex 15 (LC-15)	1	titanium	inactive
Launch Complex 16 (LC-16)	1	Titan, Pershing , Terran 1 (planned)	inactive, under construction
Launch Complex 17 (LC-17)	2	Thor, Delta	inactive
Launch Complex 18 (LC-18)	2	Viking , Scout , Thor, Vanguard	inactive
Launch Complex 19 (LC-19)	1	titanium	inactive
Space Launch Complex 20 (SLC-20)	2	Titan, Aries , Super Loki , Firefly Alpha (planned)	inactive, renovation planned
Launch Complex 21 (LC-21)	2	Goose , Mace	inactive
Launch Complex 22 (LC-22)	2	Goose, Mace	inactive
Launch Complex 26 (LC-26)	2	Jupiter, Redstone	inactive	National Historic Landmark
Launch Complex 29 (LC-29)	2	Polaris	inactive
Launch Complex 30 (LC-30)	5	pershing 1	inactive
Launch Complex 31 (LC-31)	2	Minuteman , Pershing 1	inactive
Launch Complex 32 (LC-32)	1	minuteman	inactive
Launch Complex 34 (LC-34)	1	Saturn	inactive	National Historic Landmark
Space Launch Complex 36 (SLC-36)	2	Atlas, New Glenn (planned)	in work
Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37)	2	Saturn, Delta IV	active
KSC Launch Complex 39 (LC-39)	2	Saturn, Space Shuttle , Falcon 9 , Falcon Heavy	active
Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40)	1	Titan, Falcon 9	active
Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41)	1	Titan, Atlas, Vulcan (planned)	active, renovation planned
Launch Complex 43 (LC-43)	1	Arcas , Hopi , Loki , Rocketprobe , Viper	inactive
Space Launch Complex 46 (SLC-46)	1	Trident , Athena , Minotaur	active
Launch Complex 47 (LC-47)	1	Loki, rocket probe	active