Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5

Launch Complex 5
Mercury-Redstone 1 at LC-5 in 1960
Map
Launch siteCape Canaveral Space Force Station
Location28°26′22″N 80°34′24″W / 28.43944°N 80.57333°W / 28.43944; -80.57333
Time zoneUTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)
UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Short nameLC-5
OperatorUnited States Space Force
Launch history
StatusDemolished
Launches23
First launch19 July 1956
Last launch21 July 1961
Associated
rockets
Jupiter-A
Jupiter-C
PGM-19 Jupiter
Juno I
PGM-11 Redstone
Juno II
Redstone MRLV

Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5 (LC-5) was a launch site at Cape Canaveral Space 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 July, 1961, Mercury-Redstone 4 flight. The Mercury-Redstone 1 pad abort, Mercury-Redstone 1A, and the January, 1961, Mercury-Redstone 2 with a 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 Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum which is located at LC-26. The original launch consoles and computers are on display in the LC-5 blockhouse. As of 2020, a tour of the museum can be arranged through the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's "Cape Canaveral: Early Space Tour". One tour is offered daily, so the number of visitors is limited by the size of the tour.

  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-04-14. Retrieved 2009-04-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)