What is Cape Canaveral Air Force Station?

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
(U.S. National Historic Landmark District)
Cape Canaveral from space Cape Canaveral from space
Location:	Merritt Island, Florida, USA
Coordinates:	_ ]
Area:	1325 acres[]
Built/Founded:	1950+[1]
Added to NRHP:	April 16, 1984
NRHP Reference#:	84003872[0]
Governing body:	Department of Defense[3]

The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) is the East Coast space launch facility of the United States Department of Defense. Located on Cape Canaveral in the State of Florida, it depends on Patrick Air Force Base, home of the 45th Space Wing. CCAFS is adjacent to the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

History

The area had been used by the government since 1949 when President Harry S. Truman established the Joint Long Range Proving Grounds at Cape Canaveral to test missiles. The location was among the best in continental USA for this purpose as it allowed for launches out toward the Atlantic Ocean, and it was closer to the equator than most other parts of the United States allowing for rockets to get a boost from the earth's rotation.

In 1951 theU.S. Air Force established the Air Force Missile Test Center at nearby Banana River Naval Air Station. Early American sub-orbital rocket flights were achieved at Cape Canaveral in 1956.^[4][5] Following Sputnik the first attempted satellite launch blew-up on December 6, 1957. NASA was founded in 1958 and Air Force crews launched missiles for NASA from CCAFS. Redstone, Jupiter, Pershing, Polaris, Thor, Atlas, Titan and Minuteman missiles were all tested from the site, the Thor becoming the basis for the expendable launch vehicle (ELV) Delta rocket, which launched Telstar 1 in July 1962. The row of Titan (LC-15, 16, 19, 20) and Atlas (LC-11, 12, 13, 14) launch pads along the coast came to be known as Missile Row in the 1960's. NASA's early manned spaceflights, Mercury and Gemini were prepared for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch pads LC-5, LC-14 and LC-19 by U.S. Air Force crews.

The Air Force chose to expand the capabilities of the Titan launch vehicles for its heavy lift capabilities. It constructed Launch complex 40 and 41 to launch Titan III and Titan IV rockets just south of Kennedy Space Center. A Titan III has about the same payload capacity as the Saturn IB at a considerable cost savings. Launch Complex 40 and 41 have been used to launch defense reconnaissance, communications and weather satellites and NASA planetary missions. The Air Force also planned to launch two Air Force manned space projects from LC 40 and 41. They were the Dyna-Soar, a manned orbital rocket plane (cancelled in 1963) and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, a manned reconnaissance space station (cancelled in 1969).

From 1974-1977 the powerful Titan-Centaur became the new heavy lift vehicle for NASA, launching the Viking and Voyager series of spacecraft from Launch Complex 41. Complex 41 later became the launch site for the most powerful unmanned U.S. rocket, the Titan IV, developed by the Air Force.

Current use and limitations

Launch Complexes LC-37 and LC-41 have been now been modified to launch EELV Delta IV and Atlas V launch vehicles, respectively. These new launch vehicles will replace all earlier Delta, Atlas, and Titan rockets.

In the case of low-inclination (geostationary) launches the location of the area at 28°27′N put it at a slight disadvantage against other launch facilities situated nearer the equator. The boost eastward from the earth's rotation is about 405 m/s (about 900 miles per hour) in Cape Canaveral against about 465 m/s (1,035 miles per hour) in the European Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.^[6]

In the case of high-inclination (polar) launches the latitude does not matter but the Cape Canaveral area is not suitable because of inhabited areas underlie these trajectories (for US-needs Vandenberg Air Force Base is used instead).

See also

• List of Merritt Island launch sites
• Vandenberg Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral's West coast counterpart

References

External links

• Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Virtual Tour
• "Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Shines again" feature article and video interview about the lighthouse
• * Maps and aerial photos for Coordinates:
• Maps from , Google Maps, Live Search Maps, Yahoo! Maps, or MapQuest
• Topographic maps from TopoZone or TerraServer-USA

Merritt Island launch sites   •  • [ e]
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (all except LC-39) Kennedy Space Center (LC-39)
LC-1 | LC-2 | LC-3 | LC-4 | LC-5 | LC-6 | LC-9 | LC-10 | LC-11 | LC-12 | LC-13 | LC-14 | LC-15 | LC-16 | LC-17 | LC-18 | LC-19 | LC-20 | LC-21 | LC-22 | LC-25 | LC-26 | LC-29 | LC-30 | LC-31 | LC-32 | LC-34 | LC-36 | LC-37 | LC-39 | LC-40 | LC-41 | LC-43 | LC-45 | LC-46 | LC-47 Atlantic Missile Range drop zone | Grand Turk Island drop zone | Mobile Launch Area | SLBM Launch Area | Patrick AFB | Shuttle Landing Facility | Cape Canaveral AFS Skid Strip

•  • [ e] Spaceports
Brazil (FAB, AEB)	Alcantara Launch Center
China (CNSA)	Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center • Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center • Wenchang Satellite Launch Center • Xichang Satellite Launch Center
France (CNES) / Europe (ESA)	Guiana Space Centre (in French Guiana)
India (ISRO)	Satish Dhawan Space Centre
Japan (JAXA)	Tanegashima Space Center • Uchinoura Space Center
Russia (RKA)	Baikonur Cosmodrome (in Kazakhstan) • Dombarovskiy • Kapustin Yar • Plesetsk Cosmodrome • Svobodny
USA (NASA, DoD)	in USA: Kennedy Space Center • Wallops Flight Facility • Cape Canaveral Air Force Station • Vandenberg Air Force Base ♦ elsewhere: Reagan Test Site
Private	in USA: Corn Ranch • Kodiak Launch Complex • Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport • Mojave Spaceport • Oklahoma Spaceport • Spaceport America ♦ elsewhere: Ocean Odyssey
Pakistan (SUPARCO)	Sonmiani Launch Center

	Air Force Space Command  •  • [ e]
BASES:	Buckley Air Force Base • Cape Canaveral Air Force Station • Cavalier Air Force Station • Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station • Clear Air Force Station • F. E. Warren Air Force Base • Los Angeles Air Force Base • Malmstrom Air Force Base • New Boston Air Force Station • Onizuka Air Force Station • Patrick Air Force Base • Peterson Air Force Base • Schriever Air Force Base • Thule Air Base • Vandenberg Air Force Base
NUMBERED AIR FORCES:	14th Air Force • 20th Air Force
WINGS:	21st Space Wing • 30th Space Wing • 45th Space Wing • 50th Space Wing • 90th Space Wing • 91st Space Wing • 341st Space Wing • 460th Space Wing