Launch Complex 19 (LC-19) 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 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 ...

. One of the eight pads considered part of Missile Row, it is most famous for being used as part of

Project Gemini Project Gemini () was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and ...

, being the launch site of all ten crewed missions in 1965 and 1966. Additionally, it was used for tests of the HGM-25A Titan I in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

History

Launch Complex 19 was originally built from 1957 to 1959 for 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 ...

as part of the Titan I missile program, being used for test launches alongside LC-20 to the north and LC-15 and LC-16 to the south. The first launch out of the complex was made on August 14, 1959, when a Titan I exploded on the pad thanks to a premature engine shutdown after liftoff. This extensively damaged LC-19, which took a few months to repair before the first successful flight occurred on February 2, 1960. Going from 1959 to 1962, the complex saw a total of 15 launches of the Titan I, all of them being suborbital flights and 12 of them being labeled as successes. On January 29, 1962, the Air Force launched their final Titan I from LC-19, as the

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...

was slated to be replaced by the

hypergolic A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine, whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other. The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer. The ...

fueled

LGM-25C Titan II The Titan II was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the Glenn L. Martin Company from the earlier HGM-25A Titan I, Titan I missile. Titan II was originally designed and used as an ICBM, but was later adapted as a Med ...

. Unlike the previous era where all four Titan pads were used for missile tests, the military decided to only utilize LC-15 and 16 for that purpose at

Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...

. Later in the year,

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 ...

announced that they had chosen LC-19 to be the launch site of

, of which its eponymous spacecraft would make use of a

human-rated Human-rating certification, also known as man-rating or crew-rating, is the certification of a spacecraft or launch vehicle as capable of safely transporting humans. There is no one particular standard for human-rating a spacecraft or launch veh ...

Titan II named the Titan II GLV. As part of Gemini, the facility underwent various modifications to support

crewed spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

. Most notably, the booster erector had a

white room "White Room" is a song by British rock band Cream, composed by bassist Jack Bruce with lyrics by poet Pete Brown. They recorded it for the studio half of the 1968 double album '' Wheels of Fire''. In September, a shorter US single edit (witho ...

installed at the top in order to support the egress of

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

. The first launch in this configuration (and the first orbital launch from the complex) occurred on April 8, 1964 for Gemini 1, an uncrewed mission that tested both the capsule's structural integrity and the flight-worthiness of the GLV. LC-19 joined LC-5 and LC-14 as the third pad at the Cape to support a crewed spaceflight with the launch of

Gemini 3 Gemini 3 was the first crewed mission in NASA's Project Gemini and was the first time two American astronauts flew together into space. On March 23, 1965, astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young flew three low Earth orbits in their spacecraft, ...

on March 23, 1965, which carried

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

and John Young 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 ...

. Throughout the entirety of the program, LC-19 was the site of all 12 of the 19 launches associated with Project Gemini (the other seven launching from LC-14), all 12 numbered missions, and all ten missions carrying astronauts. Among the notable flights that started at the facility include the first American

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environme ...

with

Gemini 4 Gemini 4 (officially Gemini IV) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was the second crewed spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini, occurring in June 1965. It was the tenth crewed American spaceflight (in ...

, the first close rendezvous with

Gemini 7 Gemini 7 (officially Gemini VII) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was a 1965 crewed spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the fourth crewed Gemini flight, the twelfth crewed American spacef ...

and 6A, and the first docking with

Gemini 8 Gemini 8 (officially Gemini VIII) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was the sixth crewed spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini, Gemini program. It was launched on March 16, 1966, and was the 14th crew ...

. Also noteworthy was

Gemini 11 Gemini 11 (officially Gemini XI) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was the ninth crewed spaceflight mission of NASA's Project Gemini, which flew from September 12 to 15, 1966. It was the 17th crewed ...

, which set a non-

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 ...

distance record of 1,374 km (854 mi) from Earth that stood until Polaris Dawn in 2024. The final mission of the program that launched from the complex was

Gemini 12 Gemini 12 (officially Gemini XII) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was a 1966 crewed spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini. It was the 10th and final crewed Gemini flight (Gemini 1 and Gemini 2 were ...

, which launched on November 11, 1966 and carried

Jim Lovell James Arthur Lovell Jr. ( ; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of the fi ...

and

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin ( ; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three extravehicular activity, spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eag ...

into orbit. Following the liftoff, LC-19 was deactivated from use and has sat dormant in the years since. On May 30, 1977, the launch tower and umbilical used for supporting the Titan launches were demolished in order to prevent dangers associated with rusting. Additionally, LC-19 alongside the rest of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in April 1984. The booster erector remained in place until its dismantlement in August 2003, though the white room was partially restored and relocated to the Air Force Space and Missile Museum (now Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum) situated at the sites of LC-26, LC-5, and LC-6. Currently, LC-19 is the only complex in Missile Row that has not previously been leased to a NewSpace company, and is currently sandwiched between

Firefly Aerospace Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an American private aerospace firm based in Cedar Park, Texas, that develops small- and medium-lift launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit. The current company was formed when the assets of the former co ...

's lease of SLC-20 and

Relativity Space Relativity Space Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing company headquartered in Long Beach, California. Relativity Space is new product development, developing manufacturing technologies, launch vehicles, and rock ...

's presence at LC-16. However, the

United States 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 ...

has made intentions of leasing the pad out in the near future.

Launch history

Statistics

List of launches

All Titan I flights operated by the

. All Titan II flights operated by

Gallery

Image:Complex19.jpg, Diagram of Complex 19. Image:Complex19block.jpg, Diagram of the blockhouse at Complex 19. File:EMDSW8.jpg, LC-19

is in the right background, on display at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum. File:Gemini 5 on the pad - GPN-2006-000039.jpg, The erector is lowered in preparation for the launch of Gemini 5.

References