Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), previously Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) is a launch pad at the north end of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The launch pad was used by the United States Air Force for 55 Titan III and Titan IV launches between 1965 and 2005.

After 2007, the US Air Force leased the complex to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to launch the Falcon 9 rocket. The pad has been used for 13 Falcon 9 launches from 2010 through early 2015.

Titan

The first launch from LC-40 was the maiden flight of the Titan IIIC (June 18, 1965), carrying two transtage upper stages to test the functionality of the vehicle.

Two interplanetary missions were launched from the pad:

A total of 30 Titan IIICs, 8 Titan 34Ds and 17 Titan IVs were launched between 1965 and 2005.

The final Titan launch from SLC-40 was the Lacrosse-5 reconnaissance satellite (Titan IV-B, April 30, 2005).

Launch Complex

Launch Complex may refer to Nike launch sites (e.g., Wallops Flight Facility Launch Area 3), ABM launch sites (e.g., Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex), ICBM launch complexes (e.g., Titan I Missile Complex 1A), Space Launch Complexes (e.g., Tilla Satellite Launch Centre), or to other types of launching sites with the name "Launch Complex":

Launch pad

A launch pad is an above-ground platform from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. A spaceport (or launch complex) is a facility which includes, and provides required support for, one or more launch pads. A launch pad generally contains a fixed or mobile service structure, which provides one or more access platforms to inspect and maintain the vehicle, and an umbilical structure which provides the vehicle with propellants, cryogenic fluids, electrical power, communications, and telemetry prior to launch. The service structure also provides access to the crew cabin for vehicles carrying humans. The pad may contain a flame deflection structure to prevent the intense heat of the rocket exhaust from damaging the vehicle or pad structures, and a sound suppression system spraying large quantities of water may be employed. The pad may also be protected by lightning arrestors.

A launch pad is distinct from a missile launch facility (or missile silo), which also launches a missile vertically but is located underground in order to help harden it against enemy attack, or conceal it from surveillance.

Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a cape in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River. It was discovered by the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León in 1513.

It is part of a region known as the Space Coast, and is the site of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Since many U.S. spacecraft are launched from both the station and the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, the terms "Cape Canaveral," "Canaveral", or "the Cape" have become metonyms that refer to both as the launch site of spacecraft. In homage to its spacefaring heritage, the Florida Public Service Commission allocated area code 321 to the Cape Canaveral area.

Other features of the cape include the Cape Canaveral lighthouse and Port Canaveral, one of the busiest cruise ports in the world. The city of Cape Canaveral lies just south of the Port Canaveral District.Mosquito Lagoon, the Indian River, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore are also features of this area.

Air force

An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy, or a marine corps. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions, and providing support to land and naval forces.

The term "air force" may also refer to a tactical air force or numbered air force, which is an operational formation either within a national air force or comprising several air components from allied nations. Air forces typically consist of a combination of fighters, bombers, helicopters, transport planes and other aircraft.

Many air forces are also responsible for operations of the military space, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), and communications equipment. Some air forces may command and control other air defence assets such as anti-aircraft artillery, surface-to-air missiles, or anti-ballistic missile warning networks and defensive systems. Some nations, principally Russia, the former Soviet Union and countries who modelled their militaries along Soviet lines, have an air defence force which is organizationally separate from their air force.