Launch Complex 13

Atlas withMariner 3 at Launch Complex 13 prior to launch on 4 November 1964
Launch site	Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Location	28°29′09″N80°32′40″W / 28.4859°N 80.5444°W /28.4859; -80.5444
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Short name	LC-13
Operator	United States Space Force (owner) Phantom Space andVaya Space (tenants, de jure) SpaceX (tenant, de facto)
Total launches	52
Launch pad	3 (includes 2 landing sites)[1]
Launch history Status Repurposed, land leased toSpaceX asLanding Zones 1 and 2 First launch 2 August 1958 Atlas B Last launch 7 April 1978 Atlas-Agena (OPS 8790 /Aquacade) Associated rockets Future:Daytona,[2]Dauntless[2] Retired:SM-65 Atlas,Atlas-Agena LZ-1 landing history Status Retired Landings 54 First landing 22 December 2015 Falcon 9 Full Thrust (OrbcommOG-2) Last landing 1 August 2025 Falcon 9 Block 5 (SpaceX Crew-11) Associated rockets Retired:Falcon 9,Falcon Heavy LZ-2 landing history Status Active Landings 14 First landing 6 February 2018 Falcon Heavy (Falcon Heavy test flight) Last landing 14 September 2025 Falcon 9 Block 5 (Cygnus CRS NG-23) Associated rockets Current:Falcon 9 Retired:Falcon Heavy

Launch Complex 13 (LC-13), located atCape Canaveral Space Force Station inFlorida, was the third-most southerly of the originallaunch complexes known asMissile Row, lying betweenLC-12 andLC-14. In 2015, the LC-13 site was leased bySpaceX and was renovated for use asLanding Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 (LZ-1 andLZ-2), the company's East Coast landing location for returningFalcon 9 andFalcon Heavy launch vehicle booster stages. It is leased byUS Space Force toPhantom Space andVaya Space who will operate this launch complex after the termination of SpaceX's lease in future.^[2]

LC-13 was originally used for test launches of theSM-65 Atlas and subsequently for operational Atlas launches from 1958 to 1978.^[3] It was the most-used and longest-serving of the original four Atlas pads.^{[note 1]} It was inactive between 1980 and 2015.

LC-13 was on land owned by theUS government and was originally controlled by theUnited 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.^[4]

Together with Launch Complexes11,12 and14, 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 6 metres (20 ft) tall and a reinforcedblockhouse. The rockets were delivered to the launch pad by a ramp on the south side of the launch pedestal.^[5]

Starting in 1958,Atlas B,D,E andF 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 (Missile 2F in August 1961 was the only F-series Atlas launched from LC-13).

Between February 1962 and October 1963 the pad was converted for use byAtlas-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 wasVela 1 on October 17, 1963.

Significant launches included:

• Lunar Orbiter 1 on 10 August 1966. It photographed proposed landing sites forApollo andSurveyor spacecraft on theMoon, and returned the first pictures of the Earth from lunar orbit.^[6]
• Several classified payloads for theNational Reconnaissance Office, believed to includeCanyon andRhyolite satellites.^[7]

The final launch from LC-13 was a Rhyolite satellite on 7 April 1978, using an Atlas-Agena. The pad was deactivated from 1980 to 2015.

On 16 April 1984, it was added to the USNational Register of Historic Places; however it was not maintained and gradually deteriorated. On 6 August 2005 themobile service tower was demolished as a safety precaution due to structural damage bycorrosion.^{[8][note 2]} Theblockhouse was demolished in 2012.^[9]

On 10 February 2015, the Air Force announced thatSpaceX signed a five-year lease for LC-13 to be used as a landing site for the first stage of theirreusable launch vehicle, theFalcon 9.^[3][10] 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 (640 ft) 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.^[3][11][12] However, other changes in future SpaceX plans—most notably the cancellation of a reusable Falcon 9 second stage in favor of what eventually becameStarship—resulted in only one pad being actually constructed. LZ-1 hosted its first landing on 22 December 2015 as part ofFalcon 9's 20th flight, carrying elevenOrbcomm-OG2 satellites.^[13][14][15]

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 ofFalcon Heavy.^[16] 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 (415 ft) in diameter. LZ-2 first saw use as part ofFalcon Heavy's maiden flight on 6 February 2018, and was first used for a standard Falcon 9 booster on 11 December 2022 as part ofHakuto-R Mission 1.

During a press conference leading up to the launch ofSpaceX Crew-11,William Gerstenmaier announced on 30 July 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 atSpace Launch Complex 40 andLaunch Complex 39A.^[17][18] He additionally clarified that LZ-2 would continue to be used on an interim basis while the new pads get constructed.

On 7 March 2023, theUnited States Space Force announced that LC-13 was to be leased to companiesPhantom Space Corporation andVaya Space for respective use by their Daytona and Dauntless launch vehicles.^[19]Space Launch Delta 45 provided justification as a way to optimize the use of excess launch property and theEastern Range along Florida's coastline.^[20] Unlike with the simultaneous leases granted toStoke Space atLC-14 andABL Space Systems atLC-15, the official transfer of operations was not performed until the expiration of the SpaceX lease at the end of July 2025.

Launch sites atCape Canaveral Space Force Station andKennedy Space Center

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  Active pads

  Active pads not used for launches

  Inactive leased pads

  Inactive unleased pads

1

LC-39B

2

LC-39A

3

LC-48

4

SLC-41

5

SLC-40

6

LC-47

7

SLC-37

8

LC-34

9

SLC-20

10

LC-19

11

LC-16

12

LC-15

13

LC-14

14

LC-13 (LZ-2)

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LC-12

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LC-11

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LC-36

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LC-1,LC-2,LC-3, andLC-4

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SLC-46

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LC-21 andLC-22

21

LC-31 andLC-32

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LC-18

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SLC-17

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LC-26

25

LC-5 andLC-6

26

LC-30

27

LC-25

28

LC-29

All launches before 1964 and after 1970 operated by theUnited States Air Force. All other launches operated byNASA.

All landings operated bySpaceX.

All landings operated bySpaceX.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCape Canaveral Launch Complex 13.

• Cape Canaveral AFS Virtual Tour
• Launch Complex 13, Air Force Space and Missile MuseumArchived 2018-10-10 at theWayback Machine, Cape Canaveral, Florida
• Proposed vertical landing facility at LC 13, Draft Environmental Impact Statement, October 2014, 45th Space Wing, Patrick Air Force Base.

• Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
• SpaceX facilities

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