Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) is (a former name of a) part of the United States Air Force Space Command. The Space Command's 45th Space Wing is based at the nearby Patrick Air Force Base. The CCAFS is at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is next to the Kennedy Space Center which is on Merritt Island. The two facilities have access to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip which is a large 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway for military aircraft bringing heavy and oversize loads. the CCAFS has four active launch pads for space rockets.
| Cape Canaveral Air Force Station | |
|---|---|
| Part of Patrick Air Force Base | |
| Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States | |
| Cape canaveral crop.jpg | |
| Type | Air Force Base |
| Coordinates | 28°29′20″N 80°34′40″W / 28.48889°N 80.57778°WCoordinates: 28°29′20″N 80°34′40″W / 28.48889°N 80.57778°W |
| Built | 1940[1] |
| In use | 1948–present |
| Current owner |
U.S. Department of Defense |
| Open to the public |
No |
| Controlled by | 45th Space Wing |
| Events | Space Race |
| Air Force Space Command.png | |
Many space missions have been launched from CCAFS. For example:
- Explorer 1 the first U.S. earth satellite (1958)
- MR-3 with Alan Shepard, the first U.S. astronaut (1961)
- Mercury-Atlas 6 with John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut in orbit (1962)
- Gemini 3, the first two-man U.S. spacecraft (1965)
- Surveyor 1, the first U.S. unmanned lunar landing (1966)
- Apollo 7, the first three-man U.S. spacecraft (1968)
- Mariner 9, the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (1971)
- Mars Pathfinder, the first mission to roam the surface of Mars (1996)
- Pioneer program, the first American spacecraft to orbit and land on Venus (1978)
- Cassini−Huygens, the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn (2004)
- MESSENGER which orbited Mercury (2011).
Space Launch Delta 45 emblem
A Bumper V-2 was the first missile launched at Cape Canaveral, on July 24, 1950.
Alan Shepard watches Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 launch in the Mercury Control Center.
Lift-off of Gemini-Titan 11 (GT-11) on Complex 19. The Gemini 11 mission included a rendezvous with an Agena target vehicle.
Atlas-Agena target vehicle
The Apollo 7 Saturn IB space vehicle is launched from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 34 at 11:03 a.m. October 11, 1968. A tracking antenna is on the left and a pad service structure on the right.
Pioneer 1 atop its launcher
Launch of a Navaho from LC-9
The Titan I C-1 lifts off from the Cape's Launch Complex 16. This RVX-3 Re-entry Vehicle Test mission was a failure as the second stage did not fire.
Blockhouse of LC-26 (2010)
Related pages
References
- ↑ "Patrick Air Force Base – FAQ Topic". Patrick Air Force Base. Archived from the original on November 17, 2007.
