Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) is the second of

Launch Complex 39 Launch Complex 39 (LC-39) is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Merritt Island in Florida, United States. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built as the Apollo program's ...

's three

launch pad A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term ''launch pad'' can be used to describe just the central launch platform (mobile launcher platform), or the entire c ...

s, located at

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

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

Merritt Island, Florida Merritt Island is a peninsula, commonly referred to as an island, in Brevard County, Florida, United States, located on the eastern Florida coast, along the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the name of an unincorporated town in the central and south ...

. The pad, along with

Launch Complex 39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first 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 39B, was built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V lau ...

, was first designed for the

Saturn V The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

launch vehicle, which at the time was the United States' most powerful rocket. Typically used to launch NASA's crewed spaceflight missions since the late 1960s, the pad is currently configured for use by the agency's

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American Super heavy-lift launch vehicle, super heavy-lift Expendable launch system, expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis program, Artemis Moon landing progra ...

rocket, a

Shuttle-derived launch vehicle Shuttle-derived vehicles (SDV) are space launch vehicles and spacecraft that use components, technology, and infrastructure originally developed for the Space Shuttle program. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, NASA formally studied a cargo-onl ...

which is currently used in the

Artemis program The Artemis program is a Exploration of the Moon, Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The program's stated long-ter ...

and subsequent Moon to Mars campaigns. The pad had also been leased by NASA to aerospace company

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

, for use as a launch site for their Shuttle-derived

OmegA Omega (, ; uppercase Ω, lowercase ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numerals, Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value ...

launch vehicle, for

National Security Space Launch National Security Space Launch (NSSL) is a program of the United States Space Force (USSF) intended to assure access to space for United States Department of Defense and other Federal government of the United States, United States government paylo ...

flights and commercial launches, before the OmegA program was cancelled.

History

Apollo program

In 1961, President Kennedy proposed to Congress 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 The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

, 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. Launch Complex 39B was designed to handle launches of the Saturn V rocket, the largest and most powerful launch vehicle, which would propel Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. Launch Complex 39B's inaugural launch in May 1969 was also that of the only Saturn V to launch from the pad; SA-505, used to launch the

Apollo 10 Apollo 10 (May 18–26, 1969) was the fourth human spaceflight in the United States' Apollo program and the second to orbit the Moon. NASA, the mission's operator, described it as a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing (Apollo 11, two ...

mission. After the

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, ...

mission in 1972, Pad 39B was used for

Saturn IB The Saturn IB (also known as the uprated Saturn I) was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Apollo program. It uprated the Saturn I by replacing the S-IV second stage (, 43,3 ...

launches. The Mobile Launchers were then modified for the Saturn IB rocket, by adding a "milk-stool" extension platform to the launch pedestal, so that the

S-IVB The S-IVB (pronounced "S-four-B") was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice: first for Earth ...

upper stage and Apollo spacecraft swing arms would reach their targets. These were used for three crewed

Skylab Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Skylab was constructe ...

flights and the

Apollo–Soyuz Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international Space exploration, space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as an American Apollo comm ...

, since the Saturn IB pads 34 and 37 at Cape Canaveral had been decommissioned.

Space Shuttle

With the advent of the

Space Shuttle program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its ...

in the early 1980s, the original structure of the launch pads were remodeled for the needs of the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

. Pad 39A hosted all Space Shuttle launches until January 1986, when would become the first to launch from pad 39B during the ill-fated

STS-51-L STS-51-L was the disastrous 25th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the final flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. It was planned as the first Teacher in Space Project flight in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six day ...

mission, which ended with the destruction of ''Challenger'' and the death of the mission's crew a minute into the flight. Launch Complex 39B hosted 53 Space Shuttle launches until December 2006, when ''Discovery'' launched from the pad for the final time during the

STS-116 STS-116 (also known as ISS-12A) was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery, Space Shuttle '' Discovery''. ''Discovery'' lifted off on December 9, 2006 for her 33rd flight at 20:47:35 Easte ...

mission. The program's remaining flights launched from pad 39A. To support the final Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope

STS-125 STS-125, or HST-SM4 (Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4), was the fifth and final Space Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The launch of the Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' occurred on May 11, 2009, at 2:01 pm EDT. Land ...

launched from pad 39A in May 2009, '' Endeavour'' was placed on 39B if needed to launch the

STS-400 STS-400 was the Space Shuttle STS-3xx, contingency support (Launch On Need) flight that would have been launched using if a major problem occurred on during STS-125, the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission (HST SM-4). Due to the muc ...

rescue mission.

Constellation program

Launch Complex 39B would subsequently be reconfigured for crewed

Ares I Ares I was the crew launch vehicle that was being developed by NASA as part of the Constellation program. The name "Ares" refers to the Greek deity Ares, who is interpretatio graeca, identified with the Roman god Mars (mythology), Mars. Ares I w ...

launches as part of the

Constellation program The Constellation program (abbreviated CxP) was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a " ...

; the

Ares I-X Ares I-X was the first-stage prototype and design concept demonstrator of Ares I, a launch system for human spaceflight developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Ares I-X was successfully launched on October 28, 200 ...

mission launched a prototype Ares I from 39B in October 2009, prior to the program's cancellation the following year.

Artemis program

On November 16, 2022, at 06:47:44 UTC, the

(SLS) was launched from Complex 39B as part of the

Artemis 1 Artemis I, formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission that was launched in November 2022. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis I marked the agency's return to lunar exploration a ...

mission.

Current status

After the Ares I-X test flight in 2009, NASA removed the Fixed Service Structure (FSS) from Pad 39B, returning the location to an Apollo-like "clean pad" design for the first time since 1977. This approach is intended to make the pad available to multiple types of vehicles that will arrive at the pad with service structures on the mobile launcher platform, as opposed to using fixed structures on the pad. The LH₂, LOX, and water tanks used for the sound suppression system are the only structures left from the Space Shuttle era. In 2014, NASA announced that it would make LC-39B available to commercial users during times when it is not needed by the Space Launch System. NASA subsequently agreed to allow Orbital ATK to use LC-39B for their

launch vehicle. However Northrop Grumman, who absorbed Orbital ATK in June 2018, cancelled the development of OmegA in September 2020 before any launches had taken place; SLS will therefore remain the only user of LC-39B for the foreseeable future. , LC-39B manages the

(SLS)'s processing and launch operations, as part of the first phase of a five-phase project, were being completed. The second phase of this project is currently budgeted for $89.2 million.

Launch history

Statistics

List of launches

Apollo and Apollo Applications

All flights operated by

Space Shuttle

All flights operated by

Constellation and Artemis

All flights operated by

Gallery

File:Apollo 10 Saturn V at Launch Pad 39B.jpg, The

used for

at LC-39B (1969) File:ASTP Saturn IB.jpg, Pad 9B holding a

on the "milkstool" launcher to be used for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1975) File:Launch Pad 39B (KSC-98PC-0238).jpg, An aerial shot LC-39B during the

era, looking towards the south (1998) File:Ares I-X launch 08.jpg, The

launches from LC-39B (2009) File:Kennedy LC-39B, June 2019.jpg, LC-39B with added lightning towers and holding the SLS Block 1 mobile launcher (2019) File:Artemis 1 on Launch Pad 39B (NHQ202204210010).jpg , The

SLS SLS may refer to the Space Launch System, a launch vehicle developed by NASA. It may also refer to: Education * Stanford Law School, California, U.S. * Sydney Law School, Australia * Symbiosis Law School, India * Same language subtitling, of ...

used in

on the pad of LC-39B (2022)

References

Sources # # Citations

External links

Launch Pad 39B
at

Cape Canaveral LC39B
at

Encyclopedia Astronautica The ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'' is a reference web site on Space exploration, space travel. The encyclopedia includes 79,433 articles with 13,741 illustrations, a comprehensive catalog of missiles, spacecraft, space technology, astronauts, an ...

Pad B modifications for Ares 1-X, level 300

Pad B modifications for Ares 1-X, level 275

Pad B modifications for Ares 1-X, level 255

Pad B modifications for Ares 1-X, level 235
{{NASA navbox 1969 establishments in Florida Apollo program Artemis program Constellation program Kennedy Space Center launch sites Space Shuttle program

History

Apollo program

Space Shuttle

Constellation program

Artemis program

Current status

Launch history

Statistics

List of launches

Apollo and Apollo Applications

Space Shuttle

Constellation and Artemis

Gallery

See also

References

External links