Launch Complex 11 (LC-11) at

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the sta ...

, Florida, is a launch complex used by Atlas missiles between 1958 and 1964. It is the southernmost of the launch pads known as Missile Row. When it was built, it, along with complexes 12, 13 and 14, featured a more robust design than many contemporary pads, due to the greater power of the Atlas compared to other rockets of the time. It was larger, and featured a concrete launch pedestal that was tall and a reinforced

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

. The rockets were delivered to the launch pad by a ramp on the southwest side of the launch pedestal. Thirty-two Atlas B, D, E and F missiles were launched on suborbital test flights from LC-11. The first launch to use the complex was Atlas 3B, the first flight of a complete Atlas, which was launched on 19 July 1958. In addition to the suborbital tests, one

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

al launch was conducted from the complex. On 18 December 1958, Atlas 10B launched

SCORE SCORE may refer to: *SCORE (software), a music scorewriter program * SCORE (television), a weekend sports service of the defunct Financial News Network *SCORE! Educational Centers *SCORE International, an offroad racing organization *Sarawak Corrido ...

, the world's first

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

, into

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

. The area of LC-11 is currently leased to

Blue Origin Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is an American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own ...

History

Explosions

Two on-pad explosions occurred on LC-11. The first was Missile 48D in April 1960, which suffered combustion instability and exploded on the pad. Although no specific cause for the combustion instability could be determined, the separate duct for the booster turbine exhaust had been removed from the Atlas pads at CCAS earlier in the year since it was considered unnecessary and complicated ground testing of the missiles. The failure occurred slightly under a month after Missile 51D had exploded on LC-13 due to combustion instability, and after these back-to-back failures, it was decided to put the exhaust duct back on the pads. Although there was no evidence indicating that the lack of the exhaust ducts caused the failures, program officials decided to play it safe, and in any case wanted the pads to conform with Atlas D silo configurations. The second explosion on LC-11 was when Missile 11F blew up one second after liftoff in April 9, 1962 due to a turbopump failure. In both causes, pad damage was relatively light and LC-11 restored to use in two months.

Later history

Following the end of Atlas testing at Cape Canaveral, LC-11 was the only one of the four Atlas pads to not be used for space launches, and hence was first of the four pads to be deactivated. Following deactivation, the mobile service tower and support equipment were dismantled, and the site was unmaintained for over 50 years.

Blue Origin use

has leased the site to redevelop it for their use. On March 29, 2017, it was reported that Blue Origin has chosen LC-11 to conduct test firings of the

BE-4 The BE-4 (Blue Engine 4) is a liquid rocket engine developed by Blue Origin. It uses an oxygen-rich, liquefied natural gas, liquefied methane fuel and operates on a staged combustion cycle. The BE-4 produces of thrust at sea level. Developmen ...

engine. LC-11 is located near

Spaceport Florida Launch Complex 36 Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) is a launch complex located at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Located south of the Missile Row launch range, the complex originally consisted of two pads—designated LC-36A and LC-36B—to support th ...

, which will support launches of Blue Origin's

New Glenn New Glenn is a heavy-lift launch vehicle developed and operated by the American company Blue Origin. The rocket is designed to have a Reusable launch vehicle, partially reusable, two-stage design with a diameter of . The first stage is powered ...

Launch Vehicle, currently scheduled for a launch no-earlier then 2020. Throughout 2017, aerial / satellite imagery from Planet Explorer showed that construction of a new facility was underway there. Blue Origin renders showed a pair of test stands to be constructed, but in 2019 aerial photos showed no construction had occurred.

Launch statistics

References

Encyclopedia Astronautica - LC11
{{Merritt Island Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Blue Origin facilities