Launch Complex 13 (LC-13), located 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 Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, was the third-most southerly of the original launch complexes known as

Missile Row "Missile Row" was a nickname given in the 1960s to the eight SM-65 Atlas and HGM-25A Titan I launch complexes at the middle area of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, historically used by the United States Air Force and NASA, namely LC-11 to ...

, lying between LC-12 and LC-14. In 2015, the LC-13 site was leased by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

and was renovated for use as Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, the company's East Coast landing location for returning

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

and

Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core ...

launch vehicle booster stages. It is leased by

US Space Force The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space force branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces, armed forces of the United States and one of the eight uniformed services of the Unite ...

to Phantom Space and

Vaya Space Vaya Space is a space and defense company, founded in 2017 as Rocket Crafters, based in Cocoa, Florida. It develops and manufactures orbital launch vehicles and vortex-hybrid rocket engines. In 2022, the company won the International Green Apple En ...

who will operate this launch complex after the termination of SpaceX's lease in future. LC-13 was originally used for test launches of the

SM-65 Atlas The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General ...

and subsequently for operational Atlas launches from 1958 to 1978. It was the most-used and longest-serving of the original four Atlas pads.The original four Atlas pads were LC-11, 12, 13 and 14. It was inactive between 1980 and 2015. On 16 April 1984, it was added to the US

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

; however it was not maintained and gradually deteriorated. On 6 August 2005 the

mobile service tower A service structure is a permanent steel framework or tower erected on a rocket launch pad that allows assembly, servicing, and crew onboarding of the launch vehicle prior to liftoff. In NASA launches at the Kennedy Space Center, astronauts ent ...

was demolished as a safety precaution due to structural damage by

corrosion Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engine ...

.The structure was so unstable that it could not be safely dismantled and had to be toppled by a

controlled explosion A controlled explosion is the deliberate detonation of an explosive, generally as a means of demolishing a building or destroying a second improvised or manufactured explosive device. Demolition During demolition, controlled explosions can be ...

before it could be taken apart. This has since become the standard method of dismantling launch complexes at Cape Canaveral and was used in the demolition of LC-41, LC-36 and LC-40. The

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 ...

was demolished in 2012. LC-13 was on land owned by the

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and was originally controlled by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. It was transferred to NASA in 1964 and back to the Air Force in 1970. In January 2015, the land and remaining facilities at LC-13 were leased to SpaceX for a five-year lease.

History

Together with Launch Complexes 11, 12 and 14, LC-13 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

. The rockets were delivered to the launch pad by a ramp on the south side of the launch pedestal.

SM-65 Atlas (1956–1961)

Starting in 1958, Atlas B, D, E and F missiles were tested from the complex. One on-pad explosion occurred, the launch of Missile 51D in March 1960, which suffered combustion instability within seconds of launch. The Atlas fell back onto LC-13 in a huge fireball, putting the pad out of commission for the entire spring and summer of 1960. Prior to the launch of Atlas 51D, the separate turbine exhaust ducts had been removed from the four Atlas pads at CCAS. A few weeks later, another Atlas exploded on LC-11 and it was then decided to reinstall the exhaust ducts, although it was considered unlikely that they had anything to do with the failures. The next launch hosted from LC-13 was the first Atlas E test on October 11, exactly seven months after the accident with Missile 51D. Afterwards, LC-13 remained the primary East Coast testing site for Atlas E missiles, with Atlas F tests mainly running from LC-11 (Missile 2F in August 1961 was the only F-series Atlas launched from LC-13).

Atlas-Agena (1962–1978)

Between February 1962 and October 1963 the pad was converted for use by

Atlas-Agena The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas family of rockets, and was launched 109 times between 1960 and 1978. It was used to launch the first ...

. The modifications were more extensive than the conversions of LC-12 and LC-14 with the mobile service tower being demolished and replaced with a new, larger tower. The first launch from the renovated pad was Vela 1 on October 17, 1963. Significant launches included: *

Lunar Orbiter 1 The 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic spacecraft mission, part of NASA's Lunar Orbiter program, was the first American spacecraft to orbit the Moon. It was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verific ...

on 10 August 1966. It photographed proposed landing sites for

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

and

Surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...

spacecraft on the

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, and returned the first pictures of the Earth from lunar orbit. * Several classified payloads for the

National Reconnaissance Office The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. f ...

, believed to include

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and

Rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture (geology), texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained matri ...

satellites. The final launch from LC-13 was a Rhyolite satellite on 7 April 1978, using an Atlas-Agena. The pad was deactivated from 1980 to 2015.

Landing Zones 1 and 2 (from 2015)

The site of the former Launch Complex 13 is now leased to

, and designated as

Landing Zones 1 and 2 Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, also known as LZ-1 and LZ-2 respectively, are landing facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station used by SpaceX. They allow the company to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket or the two side boost ...

signed a five-year lease for the land at the former Launch Complex 13 on 10 February 2015 to use the area to land

reusable launch vehicles A reusable launch vehicle has parts that can be recovered and reflown, while carrying payloads from the surface to outer space. Rocket stages are the most common launch vehicle parts aimed for reuse. Smaller parts such as fairings, boosters o ...

. The company originally planned to convert the old Atlas launch facility into a set of five discrete landing pads, one large primary pad with four smaller alternate pads surrounding it. However, this plan was changed to only include two pads which have already been built at the landing complex. SpaceX accomplished its first successful landing at the complex on the

Falcon 9 Flight 20 Falcon 9 flight 20 (also known as Orbcomm OG2 M2) was a Falcon 9 space launch that occurred on 22 December 2015 at 01:29:00 UTC (21 December, 8:29:00 pm local time). It was the first time that the first stage of an orbital rocket made a success ...

mission, which occurred on 22 December 2015 UTC.

Launch and landing history

Launch statistics

Landing statistics

LZ-1

LZ-2

Notes

References

External links

Cape Canaveral AFS Virtual TourLaunch Complex 13, Air Force Space and Missile Museum
, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Proposed vertical landing facility at LC 13, Draft Environmental Impact Statement
October 2014, 45th Space Wing, Patrick Air Force Base. {{SpaceX Cape Canaveral Space Force Station SpaceX facilities