Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 13

Launch Complex 13, located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, was the third-most southerly of the original launch complexes known as Missile Row, lying between LC-12 and LC-14. In 2015, the LC-13 site was leased by SpaceX and was renovated for use as Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, the company's East Coast landing location for returning Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicle booster stages until 2025 when they were retired and leased by US Space Force to Phantom Space and Vaya Space who will operate this launch complex in future.
LC-13 was originally used for test launches of the SM-65 Atlas and subsequently for operational Atlas launches from 1958 to 1978. It was the most-used and longest-serving of the original four Atlas pads. It was inactive between 1980 and 2015.
LC-13 was on land owned by the US government and was originally controlled by the United States Air Force. It was transferred to NASA in 1964 and back to the Air Force in 1970. In January 2015, the land and remaining facilities at LC-13 were leased to SpaceX for a five-year lease.

History

Together with Launch Complexes 11, 12 and 14, LC-13 featured a more robust design than many contemporary pads due to the greater power of the Atlas compared to other rockets of the time. It was larger and featured a concrete launch pedestal that was tall and a reinforced blockhouse. The rockets were delivered to the launch pad by a ramp on the south side of the launch pedestal.

SM-65 Atlas (1956–1961)

Starting in 1958, Atlas B, D, E and F missiles were tested from the complex.
One on-pad explosion occurred, the launch of Missile 51D in March 1960, which suffered combustion instability within seconds of launch. The Atlas fell back onto LC-13 in a huge fireball, putting the pad out of commission for the entire spring and summer of 1960.
Prior to the launch of Atlas 51D, the separate turbine exhaust ducts had been removed from the four Atlas pads at CCAS. A few weeks later, another Atlas exploded on LC-11 and it was then decided to reinstall the exhaust ducts, although it was considered unlikely that they had anything to do with the failures.
The next launch hosted from LC-13 was the first Atlas E test on October 11, exactly seven months after the accident with Missile 51D. Afterwards, LC-13 remained the primary East Coast testing site for Atlas E missiles, with Atlas F tests mainly running from LC-11.

Atlas-Agena (1962–1978)

Between February 1962 and October 1963 the pad was converted for use by Atlas-Agena. The modifications were more extensive than the conversions of LC-12 and LC-14 with the mobile service tower being demolished and replaced with a new, larger tower. The first launch from the renovated pad was Vela 1 on October 17, 1963.
Significant launches included:

Lunar Orbiter 1 on August 10, 1966. It photographed proposed landing sites for Apollo and Surveyor spacecraft on the Moon, and returned the first pictures of the Earth from lunar orbit.
Several classified payloads for the National Reconnaissance Office, believed to include Canyon and Rhyolite satellites.

The final launch from LC-13 was a Rhyolite satellite on April 7, 1978, using an Atlas-Agena. The pad was deactivated from 1980 to 2015.
On April 16, 1984, it was added to the US National Register of Historic Places; however it was not maintained and gradually deteriorated. The mobile service tower was demolished on August 6, 2005 as a safety precaution due to structural damage by corrosion. The blockhouse was demolished in 2012.

Landing Zones 1 and 2 (from 2015)

On February 10, 2015, the Air Force announced that SpaceX signed a five-year lease for LC-13 to be used as a landing site for the first stage of their reusable launch vehicle, the Falcon 9. Over the next several months, the area east of the old launch architecture such as the mobile service tower track was torn up and transformed into a circular landing pad 195 m diameter named Landing Zone 1. Initially, the company planned to convert the facility into a set of five discrete landing zones, one large primary pad with four smaller alternate pads surrounding it. However, other changes in future SpaceX plans—most notably the cancellation of a reusable Falcon 9 second stage in favor of what eventually became Starship—resulted in only one pad being actually constructed. LZ-1 hosted its first landing on December 22, 2015 as part of Falcon 9's 20th flight, carrying eleven Orbcomm-OG2 satellites.
In July 2016, SpaceX applied for permission on building two additional landing pads at LC-13, to be used as a site for the two side boosters of Falcon Heavy. This eventually resulted in the construction of Landing Zone 2, located at the former complex retention pool north of the Atlas pad and sized 126 m in diameter. LZ-2 first saw use as part of Falcon Heavy's maiden flight on 6 February 2018, and was first used for a standard Falcon 9 booster on December 11, 2022 as part of Hakuto-R Mission 1.
During a press conference leading up to the launch of SpaceX Crew-11, William Gerstenmaier announced on July 30, 2025 that LZ-1 would be decommissioned following the flight on 1 August, to be replaced with landing areas located adjacent to their launch pads at Space Launch Complex 40 and Launch Complex 39A. Landing Zone 2 continued to be used for Falcon 9 recoveries until its last landing for NROL-77 mission on December 9, 2025, while the new pads were being constructed.

Phantom Space and Vaya Space (from 2023)

On March 7, 2023, the United States Space Force announced that LC-13 was to be leased to companies Phantom Space Corporation and Vaya Space for respective use by their Daytona and Dauntless launch vehicles. Space Launch Delta 45 provided justification as a way to optimize the use of excess launch property and the Eastern Range along Florida's coastline. Unlike with the simultaneous leases granted to Stoke Space at LC-14 and ABL Space Systems at LC-15, the official transfer of operations was not performed until the expiration of the SpaceX lease at the end of July 2025.

Launch and landing history

Launch statistics

All launches before 1964 and after 1970 operated by the United States Air Force. All other launches operated by NASA.

No.	Date	Time	Launch vehicle	Configuration	Payload	Result	Remarks
1	2 August 1958	22:16	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas B	Suborbital test		First launch from LC-13 and maiden flight of the Atlas B.
2	18 September 1958	21:27	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas B	Suborbital test		Turbopump failure caused premature booster engine shutdown 80 seconds after launch, leading to vehicle breakup.
3	14 April 1959	21:46	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test		Maiden flight of the Atlas D. Valve closing failure at liftoff led to vehicle explosion 26 seconds after launch.
4	6 June 1959	17:39	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test		Valve failure during booster staging resulted in loss of tank pressure and vehicle breakup 157 seconds after launch.
5	11 August 1959	18:01	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
6	17 September 1959	02:09	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
7	10 October 1959	03:10	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
8	4 November 1959	21:37	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test		Impactor prediction system malfunction led to erroneous shutdown by range safety officer, leading to shorter than planned trajectory.
9	24 November 1959	19:48	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
10	9 December 1959	00:10	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
11	19 December 1959	00:48	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
12	7 January 1960	01:40	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
13	27 January 1960	01:31	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
14	12 February 1960	04:11	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test
15	11 March 1960	00:36	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas D	Suborbital test		Booster engine malfunction resulted in missile losing thrust and falling back onto pad.
16	11 October 1960	19:15	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test		Maiden flight of the Atlas E. Hydraulic disconnect caused sustainer engine failure, leading to rocket to tumble and beak up after staging, 154 seconds after launch.
17	30 November 1960	01:12	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test		Hydraulic disconnect caused sustainer engine failure, leading to rocket to tumble after staging and falling into the Atlantic Ocean.
18	24 January 1961	21:55	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test		Aerodynamic heating resulted in vernier failure, causing unstable flight trajectory.
19	24 February 1961	18:29	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test
20	14 March 1961	04:17	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test		Propellant utilization malfunction caused premature fuel depletion, leading to sustainer engine shutdown and loss of vehicle.
21	25 March 1961	01:49	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test		Wiring fault led to failure of helium control gas, causing lack of gas needed to perform booster jettison.
22	26 May 1961	02:26	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test
23	23 June 1961	03:00	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test		Gyro spin motor set to incorrect speed, causing pitch rate mishap and missile breakup 101 seconds after launch.
24	7 July 1961	04:51	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test
25	9 August 1961	04:31	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas F	Suborbital test		Maiden flight of the Atlas F.
26	9 September 1961	01:42	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test		Gas generator failure during staging led to sustainer engine failure.
27	5 October 1961	13:42	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test
28	10 November 1961	14:55	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test		Carried a squirrel monkey as a biological payload. Improper installation of pressure transducer led to sustainer engine failure during launch, leading to RSO protocols being activated 35 seconds into flight.
29	1 December 1961	20:40	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test
30	20 December 1961	03:32	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test
31	13 February 1962	20:55	SM-65 Atlas	Atlas E	Suborbital test
32	17 October 1963	02:37	Atlas-Agena	Atlas LV-3 / Agena-D	Vela 1A and Vela 1B		First orbital launch from LC-13 and first Atlas-Agena launch from LC-13.
33	17 July 1964	02:37	Atlas-Agena	Atlas LV-3 / Agena-D	OPS-3662 and OPS-3674
34	5 November 1964	19:22	Atlas-Agena	Atlas LV-3 / Agena-D	Mariner 3		Part of the Mariner program, designed to explore Mars. First civilian launch from LC-13, and first launch from the pad into heliocentric orbit. Payload fairing failed to separate, preventing satellite from being able to operate.
35	20 July 1965	08:27	Atlas-Agena	Atlas LV-3 / Agena-D	OPS-6564 and OPS-6577
36	10 August 1966	19:26	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3 / Agena-D	Lunar Orbiter 1		First mission of the Lunar Orbiter program, designed to survey the Moon from orbit in anticipation of manned exploration. First American spacecraft to enter Lunar orbit.
37	6 November 1966	20:23	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3 / Agena-D	Lunar Orbiter 2		Part of the Lunar Orbiter program, designed to survey the Moon from orbit in anticipation of manned exploration.
38	5 February 1967	01:17	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3 / Agena-D	Lunar Orbiter 3		Part of the Lunar Orbiter program, designed to survey the Moon from orbit in anticipation of manned exploration.
39	4 May 1967	22:25	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3 / Agena-D	Lunar Orbiter 4		Part of the Lunar Orbiter program, designed to survey the Moon from orbit in anticipation of manned exploration. Satellite placed in polar orbit to help survey the entirety of the near side of the Moon.
40	1 August 1967	22:33	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3 / Agena-D	Lunar Orbiter 5		Last mission of the Lunar Orbiter program, designed to survey the Moon from orbit in anticipation of manned exploration. Satellite placed in polar orbit to help survey the entirety of the far side of the Moon.
41	4 March 1968	13:06	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OGO-5		Part of the Orbiting Geophysical Observatory program, aimed at studying Earth's magnetosphere.
42	6 August 1968	11:08	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-2222
43	13 April 1969	02:30	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-3148
44	19 June 1970	11:37	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-5346
45	1 September 1970	22:40	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-7329
46	4 December 1971	22:33	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	Canyon		Gas generator failure resulted in sustainer engine shutdown, and RSO protocols 62 seconds after launch.
47	20 December 1972	22:20	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-9390
48	6 March 1973	09:30	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-6063
49	18 June 1975	09:00	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-4966
50	23 May 1977	18:13	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-9751
51	11 December 1977	22:45	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-4258
52	7 April 1978	00:45	Atlas-Agena	Atlas SLV-3A / Agena-D	OPS-8790		Final flight of a standard Atlas-Agena and final Agena flight from Cape Canaveral. The final flight launched with a modified Atlas E/F from SLC-3W at Vandenberg. Final flight from LC-13 before conversion to LZ-1 and LZ-2. Most recent launch from LC-13.