Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Part of Patrick Air Force Base
Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States Near Cocoa Beach in United States
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Show map of Florida Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Show map of the United States
Coordinates	28°29′20″N 80°34′40″W / 28.48889°N 80.57778°W / 28.48889; -80.57778
Type	Rocket Launch Site
Area	1,325 acres (5 km2)[1]
Site information
Owner	U.S. Department of Defense
Operator	Air Force Space Command
Controlled by	45th Space Wing
Open to the public	No
Website	http://www.patrick.af.mil
Site history
Built	1940 (1940)[2]
In use	1948–present
Events	Space Race
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Location	Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States
Coordinates	28°29′20″N 80°34′40″W / 28.48889°N 80.57778°W / 28.48889; -80.57778
Area	1,325 acres (5 km2)[1]
Built	1950+[3]
Visitation	Not open to the public
NRHP reference No.	84003872[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 16, 1984
Designated NHLD	April 16, 1984[4]

The Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is a part of the United States Air Force Space Command. The Space Command's 45th Space Wing is based at the nearby Patrick Air Force Base. The CCSFS is at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is next to the Kennedy Space Center which is on Merritt Island. The two facilities have access to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Skid Strip which is a large 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway for military aircraft bringing heavy and oversize loads. the CCSFS has four active launch pads for space rockets.

Many space missions have been launched from CCSFS. For example:

• Explorer 1 the first U.S. earth satellite (1958)
• MR-3 with Alan Shepard, the first U.S. astronaut (1961)
• Mercury-Atlas 6 with John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut in orbit (1962)
• Gemini 3, the first two-man U.S. spacecraft (1965)
• Surveyor 1, the first U.S. unmanned lunar landing (1966)
• Apollo 7, the first three-man U.S. spacecraft (1968)
• Mariner 9, the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (1971)
• Mars Pathfinder, the first mission to roam the surface of Mars (1996)
• Pioneer program, the first American spacecraft to orbit and land on Venus (1978)
• Cassini−Huygens, the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn (2004)
• MESSENGER which orbited Mercury (2011).

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2010-07-09.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Patrick Air Force Base – FAQ Topic". Patrick Air Force Base. Archived from the original on November 17, 2007.
3. ↑ "Cape Canaveral Air Force Station". Florida Heritage Tourism Interactive Catalog. Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs. September 23, 2007. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007.
4. ↑ Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Archived January 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine at National Historic Landmarks Program Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine.