Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5

Launch Complex 5

Mercury-Redstone 1 at LC-5 in 1960
Launch site CCAFS
Location 28°26′22″N 80°34′24″W / 28.43944°N 80.57333°W / 28.43944; -80.57333Coordinates: 28°26′22″N 80°34′24″W / 28.43944°N 80.57333°W / 28.43944; -80.57333
Short name LC-5
Operator U.S. Air Force
Launch pad(s) One
Launch history
Status Demolished
Launches 23
First launch 19 July 1956
Last launch 21 July 1961
Associated
rockets		 Jupiter-A
Jupiter-C
PGM-19 Jupiter
Juno I
PGM-11 Redstone
Juno II
Redstone MRLV

Launch Complex 5 (LC-5) was a launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida used for various Redstone and Jupiter launches.

It is most well known as the launch site for NASA's 1961 suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 flight, which made Alan Shepard the first American in space. It was also the launch site of Gus Grissom’s Mercury-Redstone 4 flight. The Mercury-Redstone 1 pad abort, Mercury-Redstone 1A, and Mercury-Redstone 2, with chimpanzee Ham aboard, also used LC-5.

A total of 23 launches were conducted from LC-5: one Jupiter-A, six Jupiter IRBMs, one Jupiter-C, four Juno Is, four Juno IIs and seven Redstones. The first launch from the complex was a Jupiter-A on July 19, 1956 and the final launch was Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 capsule on July 21, 1961.[1]

LC-5 is located next to the Air Force Space & Missile Museum. The original consoles used to launch the Mercury-Redstone rockets are on display in the blockhouse. As of 2011 a tour of the blockhouse (and the museum) can be arranged through the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's "Cape Canaveral: Then and Now" tour. One tour is offered daily, so the number of visitors is limited by the size of the tour.

Launch chronology

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.astronautix.com/sites/capallc5.htm
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