Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ( CCAFS ) is a rocket launch site of the U.S. Air Force at Cape Canaveral in Florida, just north of Cocoa Beach.
During the Second World War, this area was used by the Air Force as an airfield. In the 1950s, found here already taken the first rocket launches. The first manned space flights of the U.S. ( Mercury, Gemini and Apollo 7) also started here. Since the flight of Apollo 8 in December 1968, however, all manned rocket launch in the United States directly, northwest Spaceport NASA Kennedy Space Center. From this start are carried out with an inclination of 28 degrees to 57 degrees. Satellite with an inclination of more than 56 degrees are launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the west coast. The launch facilities of the Space Shuttle are not on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but on the grounds of the adjacent Kennedy Space Center.
History
In September 1948, the area around Cape Canaveral as the Banana River Naval Air Station was put into operation. On May 11, 1949, was selected to extend the boot capacity from White Sands ( WSMR ) in New Mexico.
In honor of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 1964 was renamed Cape Kennedy Air Force Station. In 1973, the base again its old name. But the name was changed again in 1992: the CCAFS was called for eight years Cape Canaveral Air Station ( CCAS ). In March 2000 the U.S. Air Force changed the name back to clarify the military status. Since then, the area again bears the name Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The first launch from Cape Canaveral took place on 24 July 1950. A Bumper 8 took off at 14:28 UTC from the launch complex -3 of the LC CCAFS. In the Bumper- 8 rocket it was a V2, which was extended to an American high school.
In the period from 1956 multiple starts were performed with Jupiter, Vanguard, Thor and Atlas missiles.
With a Jupiter rocket, the first U.S. satellite Explorer 1 was launched into space on 31 January 1958. Building on the Redstone and Atlas rockets, the first manned program was developed under the leadership of NASA was founded in 1958 with Mercury. The first manned rocket ( Mercury - Redstone 3) was launched on 5 May 1961, the mission Freedom 7 on a ballistic flight. Based on the Titan 2 the manned program was continued with Gemini.
With LC -34 and LC -37 emerged on the northern terrain, the first true NASA launch pads for the Saturn / Apollo missions. Shortly thereafter was also the starting complex LC -39 with three starting positions, of which only two were built, planned for the Saturn V. In a test of the Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967, was a disaster on the launch pad where the crew ( Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee ) was killed.
From the LC -34 was started on 11 October 1968 on the first manned Apollo mission (Apollo 7). On July 16, followed in 1969 with a start from LC - 39A with the Apollo 11 flight to the moon with the first manned moon landing.
Was included in the national monument list the Air Force Station as a National Historic Landmark on April 16, 1984.