110-638: Launch Complex 39 ( LC-39 ) is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida , United States. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built as the Apollo program 's "Moonport" and later modified for the Space Shuttle program . Launch Complex 39 consists of three launch sub-complexes or "pads"— 39A , 39B , and 39C—a Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB),
220-477: A Crawlerway used by crawler-transporters to carry mobile launcher platforms between the VAB and the pads, Orbiter Processing Facility buildings, a Launch Control Center which contains the firing rooms, a news facility famous for the iconic countdown clock seen in television coverage and photos, and various logistical and operational support buildings. SpaceX leases Launch Complex 39A from NASA and has modified
330-483: A 200-foot (61 m) evacuation tube running from the Mobile Launcher platform to a blast-resistant bunker 39 feet (12 m) underground, nicknamed Rubber room , equipped with survival supplies for 20 persons for 24 hours and reachable through a high-speed elevator. A further Emergency Egress System was installed to allow fast escape of crew or technicians from pad in case of imminent catastrophic failure of
440-421: A Navy FLTSATCOM satellite. Weather conditions were poor that day, with thick clouds and "moderate to heavy" precipitation. The weather conditions violated one launch criteria ("The flight path of the vehicle should not be through mid level clouds 6,000 feet or greater in depth, when the freezing level is in the clouds."), the weather team reported it as an icing issue, not a lightning risk. After discussions about
550-499: A bid for shared non-exclusive use of the complex, so that the launchpad would handle multiple vehicles, and costs could be shared over the long-term. One potential shared user in the Blue Origin plan was United Launch Alliance . Prior to the end of the bid period, and prior to any public announcement by NASA of the results of the process, Blue Origin filed a protest with the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) "over what it says
660-577: A complete Centaur upper stage burn in support of the Surveyor lunar lander program. On a nominal mission, the Centaur would boost its payload on a direct ascent trajectory to the Moon . On this test flight, NASA planned to deliver the payload, a non-functional dynamic model known as SD-1, into an orbit of 167 × 926.625 km that simulated a lunar transfer trajectory. The flight quickly ended in disaster as
770-415: A curtain of water sprayed across it for protection from flames. The launch complex was equipped with a slidewire escape basket system for quick evacuation. Assisted by members of the closeout team, the crew would leave the orbiter and ride an emergency basket to the ground at speeds reaching up to 55 miles per hour (89 km/h). From there, the crew took shelter in a bunker. The pad fire station operated
880-559: A few wealthy Harvard University graduates purchased 18,000 acres (73 km) and constructed a three-story mahogany clubhouse, very nearly on the site of Pad 39A. During the 1920s, Peter E. Studebaker Jr., son of the automobile magnate , built a small casino at De Soto Beach eight miles (13 km) north of the Canaveral lighthouse. In 1948, the Navy transferred the former Banana River Naval Air Station, located south of Cape Canaveral , to
990-481: A fleet of four modified M113A2 Firefighting Vehicles , a variant of the M113 APC. Painted in a neon green rescue livery, these vehicles provided viable transportation to rescue personnel and firefighters should they need to approach the pad during a launch emergency. They could also be used to safely evacuate astronauts and crew from the vicinity of the pad. During launches, two manned APCs would be stationed less than
1100-534: A launch vehicle for small uncrewed probes, and Agena was causing concerns to both the Air Force and NASA about its reliability. Eight Atlas-Centaur test missions were scheduled to be completed by the end of 1964, followed by the first Surveyor program launch. Centaur was upgraded to a high priority project because of this direct relation to Apollo. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense (DoD) had settled on
1210-479: A launch, it deflected the launch vehicle's rocket exhaust flame into a trench measuring 43 feet (13 m) deep by 59 feet (18 m) wide by 449 feet (137 m) long. The four-story Launch Control Center (LCC) was located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away from Pad A, adjacent to the Vehicle Assembly Building, for safety. The third floor had four firing rooms (corresponding to the four bays in
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#17327875573981320-411: A matter of seconds. It was unclear what had caused the failure at first, as tracking camera footage merely showed a large white cloud enveloping the booster followed by the explosion of the entire launch vehicle. Initial assumptions were that Atlas had suffered a LOX tank failure, either from a pressurization problem, rupture of the tank from flying debris, or structural bending/aerodynamic issues caused by
1430-461: A mile from the launch pad (holding firefighters at-the-ready), one unmanned would be stationed on the pad (for extra evacuation capacity), and the fourth provided a backup at the fire station. During the launch of Discovery on STS-124 on May 31, 2008, the pad at LC-39A suffered extensive damage, in particular to the concrete trench used to deflect the SRB's flames. The subsequent investigation found that
1540-513: A network of military communications satellites known as ADVENT. A constellation of ten satellites would provide round-the-clock instant communications for the three main branches of the US military. The first three would be launched on an Atlas-Agena, then the remainder on Centaur. ADVENT never got off the drawing board, but Centaur quickly found a use for several NASA planetary probe projects, namely Mariner and Surveyor . An initial lack of funds caused
1650-599: A new first stage powered by a much more powerful Russian -designed and built RD-180 twin-chamber engine. (Atlas V is not generally referred to as "Atlas-Centaur" and does not share the AC- serial numbers of the original Atlas-Centaur that had the pressure stabilized first stages.) On 20 February 1975, AC-33 launched carrying the Intelsat IV F-6 communications satellite . The flight went entirely according to plan up until BECO at T+140 seconds. During booster separation,
1760-530: A new record at the time of 26 consecutive flights with only malfunctions of the upper stages or payload. This was the last on-pad explosion at Cape Canaveral until 2016 ( SpaceX Falcon 9 pre-flight mishap ). Post-flight investigation examined several possible reasons for the booster engine shutdown, including an accidental closure of the booster fuel staging disconnect valve, an open fuel fill/drain valve, or an accidental BECO signal. These failure modes were quickly ruled out and attention quickly centered on closure of
1870-474: A parking position shortly before launch. While the ML was sat on its launch pedestals, one of two flame deflectors was slid on rails into place under it. Having two deflectors allowed for one to be used while the other was being refurbished after a previous launch. Each deflector measured 39 feet (12 m) high by 49 feet (15 m) wide by 75 feet (23 m) long, and weighed 1,400,000 pounds (635 t). During
1980-460: A payload of 2993 kg (that carried a mass model of the Surveyor spacecraft ). It performed propulsion and stage separation tests, following two scrubbed attempts due to bad weather. The guidance system was operated closed-loop for the first time and an attempt was made to recover the payload shroud, which was equipped with a balloon designed to release green marker dye into the ocean. The shroud
2090-636: A payload transportation canister and then installed vertically at the Payload Changeout Room. Otherwise, payloads would have already been pre-installed at the Orbiter Processing Facility and transported within the orbiter's cargo bay. The original structure of the pads was remodeled for the needs of the Space Shuttle, starting with Pad 39A after the last Saturn V launch, and, in 1977, that of Pad 39B after
2200-534: A specially-enhanced version of the Atlas D vehicle for mating with Centaur stages; the Atlas was equipped with an uprated booster section, the MA-5 , which had twin turbopumps on each booster engine, and the structure reinforced for the large upper stage, along with elongated fuel tanks. Centaur development was made somewhat difficult by the insistence on modifying Atlas components rather than developing totally new ones. This
2310-495: A swivel lanyard designed to pull out an electrical plug supplying power to the booster section failed to detach, causing a voltage spike that reset the Atlas's guidance computer. The booster drifted off its flight path as a result. SECO was effected on time at T+401 seconds followed by Centaur separation and engine start, but it had become clear that the trajectory would take it into the Atlantic Ocean instead of orbit, and so
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#17327875573982420-539: A temporary fix was made for Atlas-Agena vehicles by equipping the valve with a manual lock that would be enabled during the pre-launch countdown. A manual E-series sustainer prevalve was also installed as a precautionary measure. An unrelated system malfunction in AC-5 was discovered when an examination of telemetry data found that a power failure had occurred in the guidance computer. As a temporary fix for Atlas-Centaur AC-6, 7, and 8, several unused components were removed from
2530-557: A warehouse in the salty air along the Florida coast and the damage was in an area not visible during a preflight examination. The Atlas used on this flight had been delivered to the Cape in 1971 and kept in storage since then, an unusually long time. In the aftermath of the accident, NASA inspected their inventory of Atlas vehicles and found several more improperly brazed pipes which needed replacement. On 26 March 1987, AC-67 failed to launch
2640-442: A year later, on 27 November 1963 at 19:03:23 GMT, AC-2 (Atlas 126D and Centaur stage #2) took place five days after President Kennedy's assassination. The redesigned Centaur stage functioned without any problems and performed a single burn to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) (orbit of 474 x 1586 km, inclination of 30.4° and period of 105.8 minutes), where it remained as of 2021. The insulation panels were permanently attached to
2750-450: Is a plan by NASA to award an exclusive commercial lease to SpaceX for use of mothballed space shuttle launch pad 39A." NASA had planned to complete the bid award and have the pad transferred by October 1, 2013, but the protest "will delay any decision until the GAO reaches a decision, expected by mid-December." On December 12, 2013, the GAO denied the protest and sided with NASA, which argued that
2860-411: Is sufficient for inclusion in the table, as long as the site is properly documented through a reference. Missile locations with no launches are not included in the list. Proposed and planned sites and sites under construction are not included in the main tabulation, but may appear in condensed lists under the tables. A shorter list of spaceports for human spaceflight and satellite launches is available in
2970-613: The Space Shuttle Columbia . After Apollo 10, Pad 39B was kept as a backup launch facility in the case of the destruction of 39A, but saw active service during all three Skylab missions, the Apollo–Soyuz test flight, and a contingency Skylab Rescue flight that never became necessary. After the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, 39B was reconfigured similarly to 39A; but due to additional modifications (mainly to allow
3080-683: The Apollo–Soyuz in 1975. The first usage of the pad for the Space Shuttle came in 1979, when Enterprise was used to check the facilities prior to the first operational launch. Each pad contained a two-piece access tower system, the Fixed Service Structure (FSS) and the Rotating Service Structure (RSS). The FSS permitted access to the Shuttle via a retractable arm and a "beanie cap" to capture vented LOX from
3190-482: The Range Safety Officer (RSO) sent the destruct command at T+413 seconds. Investigation showed that the lanyard was not only inadequately designed, but it also was an off-the-shelf component designed for marine equipment and not rockets or aircraft. The lanyard had been noted as a potential problem as early as 1967 and although fixes were made to some Atlas SLVs as well as Atlas E/F series missiles, there
3300-591: The Saturn V led to numerous changes. The Nova pads disappeared, and the three Saturn pads were moved southward. The southernmost was now at the current location of Pad A, while the northernmost was located between Patrol Road, the current boundary road for the LC39 site, and Playlandia Beach Road on the north. At the time, the original three were named from north to south: Pad A through Pad C. The pads were evenly spaced 8,700 feet (2,700 m) apart to avoid damage in
3410-513: The Surveyor program was delayed. Vehicles AC-7 and AC-10 were designated for the first Surveyor missions, with AC-8 to carry out one more test, which took place on 8 April 1966 at 01:00:02 GMT with a payload of 771 kg Surveyor mass model M-1. The Centaur's ullage motors failed again because they did not have enough propellant for the mission. It decayed on 5 May 1966. Seven Surveyor probes were launched, all on Atlas-Centaur. Beginning with AC-13 ( Surveyor 5 ), Atlas-Centaur vehicles switched to
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 - Misplaced Pages Continue
3520-539: The Titan family for its heavy-lift launching needs and so the Atlas-Centaur would remain a civilian launch vehicle used by NASA to fly scientific and commercial payloads. A conflict between the Air Force, who had primary oversight of the Atlas, and NASA also existed as the Centaur stage required various modifications to the basic Atlas. By 1962, the Air Force had considered the Atlas fully developed and operational and
3630-622: The retirement of the Shuttle fleet in July 2011. Prior to the SpaceX lease agreement, the pad remained as it was when Atlantis launched on the final shuttle mission on July 8, 2011, complete with a mobile launcher platform . With the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, and the cancellation of Constellation Program in 2010, the future of the Launch Complex 39 pads was uncertain. By early 2011, NASA began informal discussions on use of
3740-628: The 1990s, with the last direct descendant being the highly successful Atlas II . Convair , the manufacturer of the Atlas, developed the Centaur upper stage specifically for that booster, sharing its pressure-stabilized tank structure. Centaur was the first rocket stage to utilize liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) as propellants. Despite boasting high performance, LH2 had to be chilled to extremely low temperatures (lower than LOX) and its low density meant that large fuel tanks were needed. The first attempt at using an LH2/LOX-fueled engine
3850-547: The Air Force for use in testing captured German V-2 rockets. The site's location on the East Florida coast was ideal for this purpose, in that launches would be over the ocean, away from populated areas. This site became the Joint Long Range Proving Ground in 1949 and was renamed Patrick Air Force Base in 1950 and Patrick Space Force Base in 2020. The Air Force annexed part of Cape Canaveral, to
3960-440: The Atlas's booster engines shut down after a few feet of vehicle rise and the rocket fell back onto LC-36A and exploded, the Centaur's LH2 load going off in a huge fireball for the biggest on-pad explosion yet seen at Cape Canaveral. This was also the first Atlas-Centaur equipped with the uprated 165,000 lb (75,000 kg) thrust MA-5 booster engines after the previous testing on two Atlas-Agena flights. The damage to LC-36A
4070-455: The Centaur experienced total structural breakup and loss of telemetry, the LOX tank rupturing and producing an explosion as it mixed with the hydrogen cloud. Two seconds later, flying debris ruptured the Atlas's LOX tank followed by complete destruction of the launch vehicle. The panel had been meant to jettison at 49 miles (80 km) up when the air was thinner, but the mechanism holding it in place
4180-568: The Centaur program "weak", and Wernher von Braun recommended that it be cancelled in favor of a Saturn I with an Agena upper stage for planetary missions. In addition, the production Centaur stage had less lift capacity than originally planned, leading to ARPA cancelling Project ADVENT. NASA transferred Centaur development from MSFC to the Lewis Research Center in Ohio where a team headed by Abe Silverstein worked to correct
4290-550: The Constellation program was cancelled. By early 2013, NASA publicly announced that it would allow commercial launch providers to lease LC-39A, and followed that, in May 2013, with a formal solicitation for proposals for commercial use of the pad. There were two competing bids for the commercial use of the launch complex. SpaceX submitted a bid for exclusive use of the launch complex, while Jeff Bezos ' Blue Origin submitted
4400-590: The External Tank was being fueled, hazardous gas was vented from an internal hydrogen tank, through the GUCP, and out a vent line to a flare stack where it was burned off at a safe distance. Sensors at the GUCP measured gas level. The GUCP was redesigned after leaks created scrubs of STS-127 and were also detected during attempts to launch STS-119 and STS-133 . The GUCP released from the ET at launch and fell away with
4510-612: The Falcon 9's failure investigation and its return to flight. In early 2016, considering the busy Falcon 9 launch manifest, it became unclear if the Falcon Heavy would be the first vehicle to launch from Pad 39A, or if one or more Falcon 9 missions would precede a Falcon Heavy launch. In the following months, the Falcon Heavy launch was delayed multiple times and eventually pushed back to February 2018. In 2018, SpaceX made further modifications to LC 39A to prepare it to accommodate it for
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 - Misplaced Pages Continue
4620-442: The ML was set in place, the crawler-transporter rolled a 410-foot (125 m), 10,490,000-pound (4,760 t) Mobile Service Structure (MSS) into place to provide further access for technicians to perform a detailed checkout of the vehicle, and to provide necessary umbilical connections to the pad. The MSS contained three elevators, two self-propelled platforms, and three fixed platforms. It was rolled back 6,900 feet (2,100 m) to
4730-543: The Range Safety Officer a few seconds later. NASA and U.S. Air Force officials, already busy investigating the launch failure of a Delta booster three weeks earlier (OTS-1), dredged the Atlas's engines from the ocean floor and sent them to Convair for examination. It was concluded that a gas generator leak caused by improper brazing of a pipe led to overheating and fire in the thrust section of the Atlas. The pipe also suffered corrosion from six years of sitting in
4840-615: The Space Shuttle to achieve orbit was provided by a combination of the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) and the RS-25 engines. The SRBs used solid propellant, hence their name. The RS-25 engines used a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (LOX) from the external tank (ET), as the orbiter did not have room for internal fuel tanks. The SRBs arrived in segments via rail car from their manufacturing facility in Utah ,
4950-580: The VAB), each with 470 sets of control and monitoring equipment. The second floor contained telemetry, tracking, instrumentation, and data reduction computing equipment. The LCC was connected to the Mobile Launcher Platforms by a high-speed data link; and during launch a system of 62 closed-circuit television cameras transmitted to 100 monitor screens in the LCC. Large cryogenic tanks located near
5060-605: The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and assembled, in one of four bays, into a 363-foot (111 m)-tall space vehicle on one of three Mobile Launchers (ML). Each Mobile Launcher consisted of a two-story, 161-by-135-foot (49 by 41 m) launcher platform with four hold-down arms and a 446-foot (136 m) Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) topped by a crane used to lift the spacecraft elements into position for assembly. The ML and unfueled vehicle together weighed 12,600,000 pounds (5,715 t). The umbilical tower contained two elevators and nine retractable swing arms that were extended to
5170-762: The article Spaceport . Major/active spaceports are shown in bold . Note that some Russian cosmodromes appear in this section, some in the Europe section. Al-Abid (Operated by [REDACTED] Russia ) (Partly operated by [REDACTED] Russia ) Note that some European countries operate spaceports in Africa, South America, or other equatorial regions. These spaceports are listed in this article according to their geographical location. Some Russian-controlled launch sites are listed as being in Asia. Note that some Russian cosmodromes appear in this section, some in
5280-655: The baskets. The system was dismantled in 2012, as seen in this video . Connections between the Launch Control Center , Mobile Launcher Platform , and space vehicle were made in the Pad Terminal Connection Room (PTCR), which was a two-story series of rooms located beneath the launch pad on the west side of the flame trench. The "room" was constructed of reinforced concrete and protected by up to 20 feet (6.1 m) of fill dirt. The first launch from Launch Complex 39 came in 1967 with
5390-435: The booster ascended. A visible thrust section fire could be seen starting at T+33 seconds and sustainer thrust vector control hydraulic pressure was lost at T+55 seconds, causing total loss of vehicle control. The payload fairing and satellite were stripped from the booster, followed by the Atlas exploding as the thrust section fire touched off the propellant tanks at T+60 seconds. The Centaur flew free until being destructed by
5500-440: The booster fuel prevalves. The low-pressure booster fuel ducting was found to have collapsed from a sudden loss of fuel flow, but had not ruptured. The investigation concluded that the fuel prevalves had only opened partially and the propellant flow was enough to push them shut, starving the booster engines of RP-1 and causing a LOX -rich shutdown. Engine start had proceeded normally and all booster systems functioned properly until
5610-444: The computer in order to reduce system complexity and failure points. The failure of AC-5 resulted in another Congressional investigation, again headed by Rep. Joseph Karth , who argued that $ 600 million of taxpayer money had been spent on Centaur so far with little to show for it and that Convair was taking advantage of being the sole supplier of the Atlas-Centaur vehicle. The committee proposed that NASA consider alternate choices for
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#17327875573985720-467: The construction of a large Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) similar to that used at existing SpaceX-leased facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Vandenberg Air Force Base , horizontal integration being markedly difference from the vertical integration process used to assemble NASA's Apollo and Space Shuttle vehicles at the launch complex. Additionally, new instrumentation and control systems were installed, and substantial new plumbing
5830-464: The crew Dragon 2 mission. These modifications included installing a new crew access arm, refurbishing the emergency egress slidewire system, and raising it up to the level of the new arm. The LC 39A fixed service structure was also repainted during this work. Rocket launch site Download coordinates as: This article constitutes a list of rocket launch sites . Some of these sites are known as spaceports or cosmodromes. A single rocket launch
5940-413: The damage was the result of carbonation of epoxy and corrosion of steel anchors that held the refractory bricks in the trench in place. The damage had been exacerbated by the fact that hydrochloric acid is an exhaust by-product of the solid rocket boosters. After the launch of Skylab in 1973, Pad 39A was reconfigured for the Space Shuttle, with shuttle launches beginning with STS-1 in 1981, flown by
6050-490: The event of an explosion on a pad. In March 1963, plans were formalized to build only two of the three pads; the northernmost, furthest from the VAB, would not be built but reserved for future expansion. As the original Pad A would no longer be built, the naming was changed to run south-to-north, so that the two pads that would be built would be A and B. If the original 39A at the north end were ever built, it would now be known as 39C. Some consideration for C's construction
6160-615: The external tank arrived from its manufacturing facility in Louisiana by barge, and the orbiter waited in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF). The SRBs were first stacked in the VAB, then the External tank was mounted between them, and then, with the help of a massive crane, the orbiter was lowered and connected to the External tank. The payload to be installed at the launch pad was independently transported in
6270-415: The external tank. A Sound Suppression Water System (SSWS) was added to protect the Space Shuttle and its payload from effects of the intense sound wave pressure generated by its engines. An elevated water tank on a 290-foot (88 m) tower near each pad stored 300,000 U.S. gallons (1,100,000 liters) of water, which was released onto the mobile launcher platform just before engine ignition. The water muffled
6380-399: The external tank. This prevented the formation of ice that could fall and damage the shuttle. The Hydrogen Vent Line Access Arm mated the External Tank's Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate (GUCP) to the launch pad hydrogen vent line. The GUCP provided support for plumbing and cables, called umbilicals, that transferred fluids, gases, and electrical signals between two pieces of equipment. While
6490-549: The facility to service a modified Centaur-G upper stage), along with budgetary restraints, it was not ready until 1986. The first shuttle flight to use it was STS-51-L , which ended with the Challenger disaster , after which the first return-to-flight mission, STS-26 , was launched from 39B. Just as for the first 24 shuttle flights, LC-39A supported the final shuttle flights, starting with STS-117 in June 2007 and ending with
6600-427: The federal government inventory. The Constellation program planned to use LC-39A for uncrewed Ares V launches and LC-39B for crewed Ares I launches. In preparation for this, NASA began modifying LC-39B to support Ares I launches with 39A planned to be modified in the mid 2010s for Ares V launches. Prior to Ares I-X, the last Shuttle launch from pad 39B was the nighttime launch of STS-116 on December 9, 2006. To support
6710-720: The final Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope STS-125 launched from pad 39A in May 2009, Endeavour was placed on 39B if needed to launch the STS-400 rescue mission. After the completion of STS-125 , 39B was converted to launch the single test flight of the Constellation Program Ares ;I-X on October 28, 2009. Pad 39B was then planned to have the FSS and RSS removed in preparation for Ares I. However, in 2010,
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#17327875573986820-438: The first Saturn V launch, which carried the uncrewed Apollo 4 spacecraft. The second uncrewed launch, Apollo 6 , also used Pad 39A. With the exception of Apollo 10 , which used Pad 39B (due to the "all-up" testing resulting in a 2-month turnaround period), all crewed Apollo-Saturn V launches, commencing with Apollo 8 , used Pad 39A. A total of thirteen Saturn Vs were launched for Apollo, including
6930-400: The first launch at pad 39A—of a Falcon Heavy—as early as 2015, as they had had architects and engineers working on the new design and modifications since 2013. By late 2014, a preliminary date for a wet dress rehearsal of the Falcon Heavy was set for no earlier than July 1, 2015. Due to a failure in a June 2015 Falcon 9 launch, SpaceX had to delay launching the Falcon Heavy in order to focus on
7040-572: The first such stage to use high-performance liquid hydrogen as fuel. Launches were conducted from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida . After a strenuous flight test program, Atlas-Centaur went on to launch several crucial spaceflight missions for the United States, including Surveyor 1 , and Pioneer 10 / 11 . The vehicle would be continuously developed and improved into
7150-620: The former crawlerway path. Also in 2015, the launch mount for the Falcon Heavy was constructed on Pad 39A over the existing infrastructure. The work on both the HIF building and the pad was substantially complete by late 2015. A rollout test of the new Transporter Erector was conducted in November 2015. In February 2016, SpaceX indicated that they had "completed and activated Launch Complex 39A", but still had more work yet to do to support crewed flights. SpaceX originally planned to be ready to accomplish
7260-472: The goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. Congressional approval led to the launch of the Apollo program , which required a massive expansion of NASA operations, including an expansion of launch operations from the Cape to adjacent Merritt Island to the north and west. NASA began acquisition of land in 1962, taking title to 131 square miles (340 km) by outright purchase and negotiating with
7370-479: The insulation panel problems and various other design flaws. In November 1962, President Kennedy suggested cancelling Centaur entirely, but was talked out of it on the grounds that the experience gained with liquid hydrogen rocket engines was vital to the success of the Apollo program . In addition, von Braun now proposed the Saturn-Agena be ruled out for cost reasons – Saturn was too expensive to justify as
7480-403: The intense sound waves produced by the engines. Due to heating of the water, a large quantity of steam and water vapor was produced during launch. The Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm positioned a hood, often called the "Beanie Cap", over the top of the external tank (ET) nose cone during fueling. Heated gaseous nitrogen was used there to remove the extremely cold gaseous oxygen that normally vented out of
7590-404: The intermediate bulkhead separating the propellant tanks combined with numerous lesser maladies with the guidance and propulsion systems. The vehicle was launched at 2:49 PM EST (18:49 GMT ) on 8 May 1962, with the intention of performing a single burn with a partially fueled Centaur. Slightly under a minute into the launch, the Centaur stage ruptured and disintegrated, taking the Atlas with it in
7700-483: The last Atlas III (Centaur), AC-206, launched on 3 February 2005. The Rocketdyne -powered Atlas-Centaur was sometimes referred to as a 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 stage launch vehicle because the Atlas first stage (in most cases) jettisoned the twin-thrust-chamber booster engine prior to the completion of the first stage burn. Atlas-Centaur with a Rocketdyne-powered first stage was used for 167 launches between 1962 and 2004 by which time they had been superseded by Atlas V with
7810-632: The latter would require several rockets to be launched in quick succession. Furthermore, the selection of the actual rockets was still ongoing; NASA was proposing the Nova design while their newly-acquired former Army group in Huntsville Alabama had proposed a series of slightly smaller designs known as Saturn. This complicated the design of the launch complex, as it had to encompass two very different possibilities and rockets. Accordingly, early designs from 1961 show two sets of launch pads. The first
7920-482: The launch films quickly confirmed the Centaur as the source of trouble. The failure was determined to be caused by an insulation panel that ripped off the Centaur during ascent, resulting in a surge in tank pressure when the LH2 overheated. Beginning at T+44 seconds, the pneumatic system responded by venting propellant to reduce pressure levels, but eventually, they exceeded the LH2 tank's structural strength. At T+54 seconds,
8030-403: The line of pads along the coast, north of C near Playalinda Beach , close to the original location of the southernmost pad in the original layout. No diagram of the access to E can be found. Had all of them been built, C, D and E would have formed a triangle. Months before a launch, the three stages of the Saturn V launch vehicle and the components of the Apollo spacecraft were brought inside
8140-572: The north, in 1951, forming the Air Force Missile Test Center, the future Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). Missile and rocketry testing and development would take place here through the 1950s. After the creation of NASA in 1958, the CCAFS launch pads were used for NASA's civilian uncrewed and crewed launches, including those of Project Mercury and Project Gemini . In 1961, President Kennedy proposed to Congress
8250-479: The pad to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. NASA began modifying Launch Complex 39B in 2007 to accommodate the now defunct Constellation program , and is currently prepared for the Artemis program , which was first launched in November 2022. A pad to be designated 39C, which would have been a copy of pads 39A and 39B, was originally planned for Apollo but never built. A smaller pad, also designated 39C,
8360-455: The pads and facilities by private companies to fly missions for the commercial space market, culminating in a 20-year lease agreement with SpaceX for Pad 39A. Talks for use of the pad were underway between NASA and Space Florida —the State of Florida 's economic development agency —as early as 2011, but no deal materialized by 2012, and NASA then pursued other options for removing the pad from
8470-461: The pads stored the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (LOX) for the second and third stages of the Saturn V. The highly explosive nature of these chemicals required numerous safety measures at the launch complex. The pads were located 8,730 feet (2,660 m) away from each other. Before tanking operations began and during launch, non-essential personnel were excluded from the danger area. Each pad had
8580-450: The planetary probe program, such as Titan IIIC , or outsource the manufacture of Centaur to other contractors. NASA representatives argued that this was impossible as no other aerospace company had the experience or technical capability to manufacture the Centaur's balloon tanks. The pad LC-36B was hastily brought online, with a successful AC-6 (vehicle 151D) launched on 11 August 1965 at 14:31:04 GMT. Although Centaur appeared flight-ready,
8690-508: The project to take far longer than intended. Under original timetables, Centaur was to make its first flight in January 1961. In October 1961, the first Atlas-Centaur (Vehicle Flight-1: Atlas 104D and Centaur F-1) arrived at Cape Canaveral and was erected at the newly completed and specifically built LC-36A. Technical problems caused the vehicle to sit on the launch pad for seven months, the most serious being leakage of liquid hydrogen through
8800-499: The risk posed by ice, the NASA program directors gave the go-ahead. The Atlas was struck by lightning around 48 seconds into launch. Control of the booster started to fail and it broke apart from structural loads at T+50 seconds. The Range Safety Officer sent the destruct command, but there was no evidence that the booster ever received it. Debris rained out of the clouds onto the pad area, the shoreline, or in shallow water just off of it and
8910-420: The rocket. The system included seven baskets suspended from seven slidewires that extended from the fixed service structure to a landing zone 370 meters (1,200 ft) to the west. Each basket could hold up to three people, which slid down the wire reaching up to 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph), eventually reaching a gentle stop by means of a braking system catch net and drag chain which slowed and then halted
9020-466: The section Asia. Please delete items or move them to the table above with appropriate data and references. Please delete items or move them to the table above with appropriate data and references. Atlas-Centaur The Atlas-Centaur was a United States expendable launch vehicle derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. The vehicle featured a Centaur upper stage,
9130-512: The solicitation contained no preference on the use of the facility as multi-use or single-use. "The [solicitation] document merely asks bidders to explain their reasons for selecting one approach instead of the other and how they would manage the facility." On April 14, 2014, the privately owned launch service provider SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A). The pad was modified to support launches of both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, modifications that included
9240-465: The space vehicle—to provide access to each of the three rocket stages and the spacecraft for people, wiring, and plumbing—while the vehicle was on the launch pad and were swung away from the vehicle at launch. Technicians, engineers, and astronauts used the uppermost Spacecraft Access Arm to access the crew cabin. At the end of the arm, the white room provided an environmentally controlled and protected area for astronauts and their equipment before entering
9350-591: The spacecraft. Early diagrams of the proposed layout also included the Nuclear Assembly Building, NAB, northeast of the VAB. These would be used to prepare the nuclear rocket engines being developed under the NERVA program, before moving them to the VAB for assembly into a rocket stack. This program was cancelled and the NAB was not built. When the stack integration was completed, the Mobile Launcher
9460-519: The stage as the jettison problem had still not been solved. Vibration data proved that the panels would have prematurely detached had they not been bolted down. The ultimate fix to the panel problem added more dry mass to Centaur, further dropping its payload capacity. This Atlas-Centaur 2 launch vehicle was used for performance and structural integrity tests. It carried a payload of 4621 kg and instrumented with 907 kg of sensors, equipment, and telemetry. The AC-3 flight (Atlas 135D and Centaur #3)
9570-692: The standardized SLV-3 Atlas core. Initially, a modified Atlas D designated LV-3C was used as the first stage. This was quickly replaced by SLV-3C, and later the SLV-3D, both derived from the standard Atlas SLV-3 rocket. Two spaceflights, with the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 space probes to Jupiter , Saturn and exiting the Solar System , used a spin-stabilized " Star-37E " solid propellant final stage weighing 2,473 pounds (1,122 kg) and contributing 8,000 mph (13,000 km/h; 3.6 km/s) to
9680-567: The state of Florida for an additional 87 square miles (230 km). On July 1, 1962, the site was named the Launch Operations Center . The need for a new launch complex was first considered in 1961. At the time, the highest-numbered launch pad at CCAFS was Launch Complex 37. A proposed Launch Complex 38 had been set aside for the future expansion of the Atlas-Centaur program, but ultimately never built. The new complex
9790-462: The traffic-light warning system for the Crawlerway has lights for Pad C. The plans still set aside room for the remaining two pads, now known as D and E. Pad D would have been built due west of Pad C, some distance inland along Patrol Road. Access to D would have branched off westward from the crawlerway at the point where C's crawlerway turned north. Pad E would have continued
9900-711: The uncrewed launch of the Skylab space station in 1973. The mobile launchers were then modified for the shorter Saturn IB rockets, by adding a "milk-stool" extension platform to the launch pedestal, so that the S-IVB upper stage and Apollo spacecraft swing arms would reach their targets. These were used for three crewed Skylab flights and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project , since the Saturn IB pads 34 and 37 at Cape Canaveral SFS had been decommissioned. The thrust to allow
10010-413: The unproven Atlas-Centaur combination, and indeed there had been several previous occurrences of these failure modes on Atlas launches. Scott Carpenter 's Mercury flight was only days away, and if the failure were caused by the Atlas, it could mean significant delays for that mission, which used a similar Atlas D derived Atlas LV-3B booster. However, analysis of telemetry data and closer examination of
10120-429: The valve closed. Booster shutdown occurred at T+1.7 seconds and the vehicle impacted on the pad at T+2.8 seconds. Bench testing confirmed that there were several possible ways that the valve would only open partially, although the exact reason was not determined. This failure mode had never occurred in the 240 Atlas launches prior to AC-5 despite always having been possible. Until a more permanent solution could be found,
10230-483: The vehicle to tumble out of control. After ten orbits, the Centaur reentered over the South Pacific , on 12 December 1964. The AC-5 flight (Atlas 156D) on 2 March 1965 at 13:25 GMT from Cape Kennedy in a highly elliptical orbit, with a payload (Surveyor SD-1) of 951 kg, was only intended to carry out a single burn of the Centaur C, and program officials felt confident. This mission was designed to rehearse
10340-761: The velocities of the spacecraft. With the retirement of the Agena stage in 1978, all Atlas flown from that point onward were paired with Centaurs except for a few military flights involving decommissioned Atlas E/F missiles. Originally designed and built by the Convair Division of General Dynamics in San Diego , California , production of Atlas-Centaur at Convair ended in 1995 but was resumed at Lockheed Martin in Colorado . The list of Atlas-Centaur ID numbers began with AC-1 launched on 8 May 1962 and ended with
10450-482: Was a series of three pads for Saturn along Playalinda Beach , with the southernmost near the current Eddy Creek Boat Launch, and the northernmost around Klondike Beach. Far to the south was a similar set of three pads for Nova, the southernmost just south of the Astronaut Beach House and the northern roughly at the location of the current Pad A. The final selection of lunar orbit rendezvous and
10560-559: Was able to compensate for a time, but the Centaur eventually lost control and began tumbling. Premature engine shutdown due to propellant starvation occurred at T+496 seconds, and the Centaur impacted in the South Atlantic . Postflight investigation traced the malfunction to a failure of the Centaur-2 engine hydraulic gimbal actuator. The AC-4 flight (Atlas 146D and Centaur #4) was launched on 11 December 1964 at 14:25:02 GMT with
10670-539: Was added for a variety of rocket liquids and gases. In 2015, SpaceX built the Horizontal Integration Facility just outside the perimeter of the existing launch pad in order to house both the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy rockets, and their associated hardware and payloads, during preparation for flight. Both types of launch vehicles will be transported from the HIF to the launch pad aboard a Transporter Erector (TE) which will ride on rails up
10780-520: Was against any further significant changes to it which might potentially jeopardize the ICBM program. The dispute was ultimately resolved by NASA agreeing to purchase standard Atlas D vehicles which could be custom-modified for Centaur launches. However, when the Atlas ICBM program ended in 1965, Convair replaced all of the earlier variants with a standardized booster for all space launches. More than
10890-563: Was constructed from January to June 2015, to accommodate small-lift launch vehicles . NASA launches from pads 39A and 39B have been supervised from the NASA Launch Control Center (LCC), located 3 miles (4.8 km) from the launch pads. LC-39 is one of several launch sites that share the radar and tracking services of the Eastern Test Range . Northern Merritt Island was first developed around 1890 when
11000-414: Was designed inadequately, leading to premature separation. The insulation panels had already been suspected during Centaur development of being a potential problem area, and the possibility of an LH2 tank rupture was considered as a failure scenario. Testing was suspended while efforts were made to correct the Centaur's design flaws. A Congressional investigation in June 1962 called the overall management of
11110-424: Was done for time and budget reasons and because it allowed the Centaur to be manufactured on the existing Atlas assembly line at Convair. The engines were manufactured by Pratt & Whitney . Originally under ARPA supervision, Centaur was transferred to NASA in July 1959, eleven months after the program's inception. The Air Force retained overall supervision in part because they intended to use Centaur to launch
11220-414: Was easily recovered. A section of the payload fairing was found to have multiple small holes burned in it due to repeated lightning strikes. The key piece of evidence was Atlas's flight computer, which was recovered intact and examined. It was discovered that the last command issued was a signal to gimbal the booster engines hard to right, caused apparently by lightning induced electromagnetic pulse altering
11330-440: Was launched on 30 June 1964 at 14:04:22 GMT with a payload of 4815 kg. Atlas performance was close to nominal with the sustainer running slightly LOX-rich for the first 70 seconds of flight and the trajectory being more lofted than expected. Insulation panel and payload shroud jettisons were tested for the first time. Following Centaur staging and engine start, the number two (C-2) engine began to lose roll control. The C-1 engine
11440-470: Was made: the Crawlerway initially splits off from A toward B running north-northwest, and then bends north toward B a short distance north at Cochran Cove. Continuing straight north-northeast would have led to C after a similar northward bend. The original construction of the Crawlerway included an interchange between B and a short part of the extension northward for C, which remains intact as of 2022, and
11550-461: Was moved atop one of two crawler-transporters , or Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities, 3–4 miles (4.8–6.4 km) to its pad at a speed of 1 mile per hour (1.6 km/h). Each crawler weighed 6,000,000 pounds (2,720 t) and was capable of keeping the space vehicle and its launcher platform level while negotiating the 5 percent grade to the pad. At the pad, the ML was placed on six steel pedestals, plus four additional extensible columns. After
11660-428: Was no across-the-board effort to replace them with a more suitable component. The backup Intelsat ( Intelsat IV F-1 ) was launched successfully on AC-35 in May 1975. Two years later, on 29 September 1977, another attempted launch of an Intelsat ( Intelsat IVA F-5 ) communications satellite took place on AC-43. Shortly after liftoff, abnormal temperatures were detected in the Atlas's thrust section and continued to rise as
11770-430: Was not as severe as it looked and repairs were largely completed in three months, but the completion of LC-36B was also accelerated. Most damages were thermal rather than structural, and the upper portion of the umbilical tower, which was in the center of the LH2 blast, had been subjected to temperatures of 3315 °C. The accident marked the first failure of an Atlas booster in a space launch since Midas 8 in June 1963,
11880-444: Was sighted by recovery crews but sank into the ocean and could not be located. The Atlas phase of the flight and the initial phase of Centaur flight were uneventful. The mission went awry when the Centaur could not be restarted due to an ill-conceived design modification — the ullage rockets were reduced in size to save weight, however, they proved insufficient to settle the propellants in the tanks. Subsequently, venting hydrogen caused
11990-460: Was the U.S. Air Force 's top-secret Lockheed CL-400 Suntan reconnaissance aircraft program in the mid-1950s. The progress made during the aborted venture was picked up by Convair and others for rocket stage use. Originally, Centaur was conceived of as a purely experimental project to develop an experience for larger, more powerful rocket stages so as not to distract Convair's focus on the all-important SM-65 Atlas missile program. Convair developed
12100-427: Was thus designated Launch Complex 39. The method of reaching the Moon had not yet been decided. The two leading alternatives were direct ascent , which launched a single huge rocket; and Earth orbit rendezvous , where two or more launches of smaller rockets would place several parts of the lunar departure spacecraft which would be assembled in orbit. The former would require a huge Nova-class launcher and pads, while
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