Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 37

Infobox Launch Pad
name = Launch Complex 37


imsize = 250
caption =The launch of GOES-N atop a Delta IV, from LC-37B in 2006
site = Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
location =28.531986°N
80.566821°W
short = LC-37
operator = US Air Force
tlaunches = 14
pads = 2
inclination = 28° - 57°
pad1 = LC-37A
pad2 = LC-37B
status = Inactive
launches =0
first = Unused
last =
rockets = (none)
status2 = Active
launches2 =14
first2 = SA-5, 29 January 1964
last2 = DSP-23, 11 November 2007
rockets2 = Saturn I
Saturn IB
Delta IV (current)

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 37 (LC-37) is a launch complex at Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Construction began in 1959 and the site was accepted by NASA to support the Saturn IB program in 1963. cite web |url=http://fas.org/spp/military/facility/ccas-lc-37.htm |title=Complex 37 -- Cape Canaveral Air Station |accessdate=2008-05-28 |publisher=Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org) |date=2000-06-16 ] The complex consists of two launch pads. LC-37A has never been used, but LC-37B saw unmanned Saturn I and IB flights in the mid sixties, including the first (unmanned) test of the Apollo Lunar Module in space. It is still in use today as the launch site for the Boeing Delta IV.The first launch to utilize the complex was the SA-5 unmanned test of the Saturn I launch vehicle. It was closed in 1968, following the unmanned Apollo flight, Apollo 5, but re-opened in 2002 as a Delta IV launch site. The most recent launch from it was the 23rd and final Defense Support Program missile-warning satellite, DSP-23 atop a "Delta IV Heavy" rocket, at 01:50:00 GMT on 11 November 2007 (8:50 EST, November 10, 2007). [cite web |url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d329/index.html |title=Delta 4-Heavy rocket fires away from Cape Canaveral |accessdate=2008-05-28 |author=Justin Ray |date=2007-11-11 |work=Spaceflight Now (http://www.spaceflightnow.com) |publisher=]

LC-37A is one of the sites under consideration, along with LC-34 and the unbuilt LC-39C, for the launch site of the Ares I rocket, part of Project Constellation.

The original layout of the launch complex featured one MSS which could be used to service or mate a rocket on either LC-37A or B, but not on both simultaneously.

ee also

*Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
*List of spaceflights by year
*List of Merritt Island launch sites
*Merritt Island
*Project Apollo
*Saturn I
*Saturn IB
*Delta IV

External links

* [http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/delta/delta4/delta4.htm Boeing Delta IV website]

References