Landing Zone 1

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 boosters of its Falcon Heavy rocket.

The facilities were built on land leased in February 2015 on the site of Launch Complex 13. Landing Zone 1 saw its first use on 21 December 2015 when B1019 touched down during Falcon 9 flight 20. Landing Zone 2 was added ahead of the first Falcon Heavy test flight on 6 February 2018. During a Falcon Heavy launch, both LZs are used, allowing the two side boosters to land simultaneously.

Site

Landing Zones 1 and 2 are located at the location of Launch Complex 13, which has been demolished and replaced by two circular landing pads in diameter and marked with a stylized ''X'' from the SpaceX company logo. Four more diameter pads were initially planned to be built to support the simultaneous recovery of additional boosters used by the Falcon Heavy, although only one extra pad has been built. Planned infrastructure additions to support operations includes improved roadways for crane movement, a rocket pedestal area, remote-controlled fire suppression systems in case of a landing failure, and a large concrete foundation, away from the future three landing pads, for attaching the booster stage when taking the rocket from vertical to horizontal orientation.

Operations at the facility began after seven earlier landing tests by SpaceX, five of which involved intentional descents into the open ocean, followed by two failed landing tests on an ocean-going platform.

As of March 2, 2015, the Air Force's sign for LC-13 was briefly replaced with a sign identifying it as ''Landing Complex''. The site was renamed ''Landing Zone'' prior to its first use as a landing site.


Elon Musk indicated in January 2016 that he thought the likelihood of successful landings for all of the attempted landings in 2016 would be approximately 70 percent, hopefully rising to 90 percent in 2017, and cautioned that the company expects a few more failures.

In July 2016, SpaceX applied for permission to build two additional landing pads at Landing Zone 1 for landing the boosters from Falcon Heavy flights.

In May 2017, construction on a second, smaller pad began, called Landing Zone 2. This pad is located about to the northwest of the first pad and is used for landing Falcon Heavy side boosters. By June 2017, the landing pad was modified with a radar reflective paint, to aid with landing precision.

Falcon 9 boosters mostly land on LZ-1 pad and rarely land on LZ-2, except in cases when a Cape Canaveral launched booster cannot land on LZ-1, as a previous booster is still sitting on that pad, as in case of Hakuto-R Mission 1's booster B1073.5 on 11 December 2022. The LZ-1 was already occupied by Oneweb Flight#15's booster B1069.4 launched on 8 December 2022, so LZ-2 was used by a Falcon 9 for the first time.

Landing history

LZ-1

LZ-2

Booster landings

Detailed history

''For landings at sea, see Autonomous spaceport drone ship''

After approval from the FAA, SpaceX accomplished its first successful landing at the complex with Falcon 9 flight 20 on December 22, 2015 UTC;
this was the 8th controlled-descent test of a Falcon 9 first stage. A second successful landing at LZ-1 took place shortly after midnight, local time (EDT) on July 18, 2016, as part of the CRS-9 mission, which was the Falcon 9's 27th flight.SpaceX launches space station docking port for NASA
The Associated Press, July 18, 2016 The third successful landing was by the CRS-10 mission's first stage on February 19, 2017, which was the Falcon 9's 30th flight. Landing Zone 2 was first used by the maiden launch of Falcon Heavy on February 6, 2018, when the rocket's two side boosters touched down on LZ-1 and LZ-2.

File:Landing Zone 1 (23267877284).jpg, A person standing in the middle of the main landing pad demonstrates its size.
File:Landing Zone 1 (23787738692).jpg, Sign at entrance to Landing Zone 1 site
File:ORBCOMM-2 First-Stage Landing (23604164970).jpg, Launch and landing traces of Falcon 9 Flight 20, from launch pad SLC-40 to landing pad LZ-1
File:Falcon 9 Flight 20 OG2 first stage post-landing (23273082823).jpg, First stage of Falcon 9 Flight 20 on the pad shortly after landing
File:Falcon 9 first stage at LZ-1(two).jpg, Recovery operations after Falcon 9 Flight 20 landing
File:Dual Booster Return - the simulation made real today (39411414724).jpg, Double return of Falcon Heavy test flight boosters

See also

* SpaceX reusable launch system development program
* Autonomous spaceport drone ship, used to recover first stage boosters at sea

Notes

References

External links

Computer animation of planned launch and landing of Falcon Heavy boosters
(SpaceX)

{{SpaceX, state=collapsed

SpaceX facilities
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Buildings and structures completed in 2015
SpaceX related lists