Launch Complex 34 (LC-34) is a deactivated launch site on

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 statio ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. LC-34 and its companion LC-37 to the north were used by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

from 1961 through 1968 to launch

Saturn I The Saturn I was a rocket designed as the United States' first medium lift launch vehicle for up to low Earth orbit payloads.Terminology has changed since the 1960s; back then, 20,000 pounds was considered "heavy lift". The rocket's first sta ...

and IB

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

s as part of the Apollo program. It was the site of the

Apollo 1 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbita ...

fire, which claimed the lives of astronauts

Gus Grissom Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was an American engineer, pilot in the United States Air Force, and member of the Mercury Seven selected by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) as Project Mercur ...

, Ed White, and

Roger Chaffee Roger Bruce Chaffee (; February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967) was an American naval officer, aviator and aeronautical engineer who was a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program. Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he became an Eag ...

on January 27, 1967. The first crewed Apollo launch — Apollo 7 on October 11, 1968 — was the last time LC-34 was used.

History

Construction

Work began on LC-34 in 1960, and it was formally dedicated on June 5, 1961. The complex consisted of a launch platform, umbilical tower, mobile service tower, fueling facilities, and a blockhouse. Two steel flame deflectors were mounted on rails to allow placement beneath the launch platform. The service tower was likewise mounted on rails, and it was moved to a position 185 meters west of the pad before launch. At 95 meters high, it was the tallest structure at LC-34. The blockhouse, located 320 meters from the pad, was modeled after the domed reinforced concrete structure at LC-20. During a launch, it could accommodate 130 people as well as test and instrumentation equipment. Periscopes afforded views outside the windowless facility.

Saturn I series

LC-34 saw its first launch on October 27, 1961. The first Saturn I, Block I, mission SA-1, lofted a dummy

upper stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage is ...

on a suborbital trajectory into the Atlantic. The subsequent three Saturn I launches took place at LC-34, ending with SA-4 on March 28, 1963. The six ensuing Saturn I, Block II launches were conducted at LC-37. On November 29, 1963, following the death of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

, his successor

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

issued Executive Order 11129 renaming both NASA's Merrit Island Launch Operations Center and "the facilities of Station No. 1 of the Atlantic Missile Range" (a reference to Canaveral AFB) the "John F. Kennedy Space Center". He had also convinced Gov.

C. Farris Bryant Cecil Farris Bryant (July 26, 1914 – March 1, 2002) was an American politician serving as the 34th Governor of Florida. He also served on the United States National Security Council as director of the Office of Emergency Planning during t ...

(D-Fla.) to change the name of Cape Canaveral to ''Cape Kennedy''. This resulted in some confusion in public perception, which

conflated Conflation is the merging of two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, opinions, etc., into one, often in error. Conflation is often misunderstood. It originally meant to fuse or blend, but has since come to mean the same as equate, treati ...

the two. NASA Administrator

James E. Webb James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992) was an American government official who served as Undersecretary of State from 1949 to 1952. He was the second Administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961, to October 7, 1968. Webb led NAS ...

clarified this by issuing a directive stating the ''Kennedy Space Center'' name applied only to Merritt Island, while the Air Force issued a general order renaming the Air Force Station launch site ''Cape Kennedy Air Force Station''.

Saturn IB series

LC-34 was extensively modified to support Saturn IB launches, which began in February 1966. New anchor points were built to fasten the service structure in place during high winds. Access arms on the umbilical tower were rebuilt to match the larger rocket. At the 67-meter level, the swing arm was outfitted with a white room to permit access to the command module at the top of a rocket. Two Saturn IBs (

AS-201 AS-201 (or SA-201), flown February 26, 1966, was the first uncrewed test flight of an entire production Block I Apollo command and service module and the Saturn IB launch vehicle. The spacecraft consisted of the second Block I command module ...

and

AS-202 AS-202 (also referred to as SA-202) was the second uncrewed, suborbital test flight of a production Block I Apollo command and service module launched with the Saturn IB launch vehicle. It was launched on August 25, 1966, and was the first fl ...

) were successfully launched from LC-34 before the Apollo 1 fire brought Apollo activities at the spaceport to an abrupt halt. After the fire, extinguishing equipment was installed at the top of the umbilical tower, and a slide wire was set up to provide astronauts a quick escape in the event of an emergency. The first crewed Apollo launch— Apollo 7 on October 11, 1968—was the last time LC-34 was used. NASA considered reactivating both LC-34 and LC-37 for the

Apollo Applications Program The Apollo Applications Program (AAP) was created as early as 1966 by NASA headquarters to develop science-based human spaceflight missions using hardware developed for the Apollo program. AAP was the ultimate development of a number of official ...

, but instead

LC-39B Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) is the second of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39A, was first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle, ...

was modified to launch Saturn IBs. The geographical name change from ''Cape Canaveral'' to ''Cape Kennedy'' proved to be unpopular, owing to the historical longevity of Cape Canaveral. In 1973, both the Air Force Base and the geographical Cape names were reverted to Canaveral.

Launch Complex 34 today

After the decommissioning of LC-34, the umbilical tower and service structure were razed, leaving only the launch platform standing at the center of the pad. It serves as a memorial to the crew of Apollo 1. A dedicatory plaque affixed to the structure bears the inscription:

LAUNCH COMPLEX 34 Friday, 27 January 1967 1831 Hours Dedicated to the living memory of the crew of the Apollo 1 U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Virgil I. Grissom U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Edward H. White, II U.S.N. Lt. Commander Roger B. Chaffee They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.

Another plaque (which was shown in the film ''

Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

'')CollectSpace
/ref> reads:

IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE SO OTHERS COULD REACH THE STARS
AD ASTRA PER ASPERA ''Ad astra'' is a Latin phrase meaning "to the stars". The phrase has origins with Virgil, who wrote in his ''Aeneid'': "''sic itur ad astra''" ('thus one journeys to the stars') and "''opta ardua pennis astra sequi''" ('desire to pursue the h ...
(A ROUGH ROAD LEADS TO THE STARS) GOD SPEED TO THE CREW OF APOLLO 1

Also surviving at the LC-34 site are the two flame deflectors and the blockhouse. The original spherical Liquid Oxygen (LOX) tank at LC-34 was purchased by SpaceX in 2008, moved to LC-40, refurbished (cleaned, pressure tested, painted white), and now used for Falcon 9 flights.

Gallery

File:Apollo 1 launch site 2009.jpg, Pad 34 after being turned into a memorial site File:Pad 34 flame deflectors.jpg, Saturn I and IB flame deflectors. Pad 37 is in the background. File:Pad 34 blockhouse.jpg, Blockhouse File:JFK Tour of KSC - GPN-2000-000605.jpg, NASA administrator James Webb, VP Johnson and President Kennedy are briefed during a tour of Blockhouse 34 in 1962 File:Pad 34 looking up.jpg, Underside File:Pad 34 abandon.jpg, "Abandon in place", which means to abandon it "as is", with no maintenance. Most of the historical launch sites at Cape Canaveral are categorized in this manner. File:Pad 34 astronaut memorial.jpg, Astronaut memorial kiosk Image:LC34 memorial benches.jpg, Granite

memorial bench A memorial bench, memorial seat or death bench is a piece of outdoor furniture which commemorates a dead person. Such benches are typically made of wood, but can also be made of metal, stone, or synthetic materials such as plastics. Typically mem ...

es on the southern edge of the launch pad

Launch history

This is a complete list of all launches made from LC-34.

References

Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations

External links

{{Merritt Island Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Apollo program Apollo 1 Apollo 7 Launch complexes of the United States Space Force 1961 establishments in Florida