About Launch Complex 17

When you check the weather on your radio, television or Internet, you have Launch Complex (LC) 17 to thank in part. The dual launch pad complex, visible from the beach at Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach, was first built in 1956 for the THOR ballistic missile program, but later was used to launch probes to the Moon and planets, solar observatories and weather satellites.

LC 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station features two active Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) launch pads, 17-A and 17-B. The pads are run by the U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing and have supported more than 300 military, NASA and commercial missile and rocket launches.

Pad 17-A supported its first THOR missile launch on Aug. 30, 1957, and Pad 17-B supported its first THOR launch on Jan. 25 1957. Complex 17 began supporting rocket launches in the late 1950s. The site was upgraded in the early 1960s to support a variety of modern Expendable Launch Vehicles, which were derived from the basic THOR booster. The modern ELVs based on THOR came to be called the Delta family of rockets.

Thirty-five early Delta rocket missions were launched from Complex 17 between the beginning of 1960 and the end of 1965. At that time the complex was run by the Air Force. The Air Force transferred Complex 17 to NASA in 1965, but the site was returned to the Air Force in 1988 to support the Delta II program.

As Delta II launches continued over the next decade, Pad 17-B was modified in 1997 to support a new, more powerful launch vehicle, the Delta III. The Delta III made its first successful launch debut on Pad 17-B Aug. 23, 2000.

Among the major NASA missions launched from the complex were the Explorer and Pioneer space probes, all of the Orbiting Solar Observatories, Solar Maximum, Biological Satellites (BIOS), Television Infrared Observations Satellites (TIROS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES).

These probes and satellites have, among many other things, revealed much about the Moon and our neighboring planets and continue to provide people across the world critical weather information on a daily basis.

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