SLC-40 hosted the first launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 in June 2010. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station is the primary launch site for the Space Force's Eastern Range[5] with three launch pads currently active (Space Launch Complexes 37B, 40, and 41). The Air Force chose to expand the capabilities of the Titan launch vehicles for its heavy lift capabilities. Cape Canaveral is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. [14] These flights occurred shortly after sub-orbital flights launched from White Sands Missile Range, such as the Viking 12 sounding rocket on February 4, 1955. The high-tide line has been moving landward for some time at Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s east coast. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket climbs upward after lifting off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on July 30, 2020, at 7:50 a.m. EDT, carrying NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter. Located on Merritt Island, Florida, the center is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Miami and Jacksonville on Florida's Space Coast, due east of Orlando. [7], Cape Canaveral was known as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station from 1963 to 1973, and as Cape Canaveral Air Force Station from 1949 to 1963 and from 1973 to 2020. NASA has also launched communications and weather satellites from Launch Complexes 40 and 41, built at the north end of the Cape in 1964 by the Air Force for its Titan IIIC and Titan IV rockets. Continue your journey safely where rockets launch and inspiration begins at Florida's gateway to space. [10] The facility was eventually renamed by Vice President Mike Pence on December 9, 2020.[11]. NASA Administrator James E. Webb clarified this by issuing a directive stating the Kennedy Space Center name applied only to Merrit Island, while the Air Force issued a general order renaming the Air Force Station launch site Cape Kennedy Air Force Station. The final flight, Gemini 12, launched on November 11, 1966. [32][33], The runway was first called the Skid Strip because SM-62 Snark cruise missiles (which lacked wheels) returning from test flights were supposed to skid to a halt on it.[34]. The facility is south-southeast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island, with the two linked by bridges and causeways. [citation needed], Launch Complex 40 and 41 have been used to launch defense reconnaissance, communications and weather satellites and NASA planetary missions. Editor: Mark Garcia. They were the Dyna-Soar, a crewed orbital rocket plane (canceled in 1963) and the USAF Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL), a crewed reconnaissance space station (canceled in 1969). Located within the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, NASA’s most famous center covers more than 66 square miles (170 square kilometers) and holds about 20 percent of the agency’s constructed assets. Launch Complex SLC-46 is reserved for use by Space Florida.[26]. The Air Force constructed Launch Complexes 40 and 41 to launch Titan III and Titan IV rockets just south of Kennedy Space Center. A single potable water line from Cocoa runs under the Sykes Creek Bridge at Sea Ray Drive. With the issue of the placement of expanded Air Force facilities on Merritt Island also in question, a joint NASA-Air Force team began meeting on February 19, 1962 to iron out the logistical problems. After significant safety improvements were made to the Command Module, Apollo 7 was launched from LC-34 to fulfill Apollo 1's mission, using Saturn IB AS-205 on October 11, 1968. On that date, the United States launched its first two-stage rocket, combining German and American technology, from a place on the Atlantic coast of central Florida called Cape Canaveral. 1 of the Atlantic Missile Range" (a reference to Canaveral AFB) as the "John F. Kennedy Space Center". The first four Saturn I development launches were made from LC-34 between October 27, 1961, and March 28, 1963. Visit NASA's launch complex, the astronaut hall of fame, or see a rocket launch all just an hour from Orlando at Kennedy Space Center. Two of the Atlas-Agena vehicles failed to reach orbit on Gemini 6 and Gemini 9, and a mis-rigging of the nosecone on a third caused it to fail to eject in orbit, preventing docking on Gemini 9A.