Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5

Launch Complex 5 (LC-5) was a launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida used for various Redstone and Jupiter launches.

It is most well known as the launch site for NASA's 1961 suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 flight, which made Alan Shepard the first American in space. It was also the launch site of Gus Grissom’s Mercury-Redstone 4 flight. The Mercury-Redstone 1 pad abort, Mercury-Redstone 1A, and Mercury-Redstone 2, with chimpanzee Ham aboard, also used LC-5.

A total of 23 launches were conducted from LC-5: one Jupiter-A, six Jupiter IRBMs, one Jupiter-C, four Juno Is, four Juno IIs and seven Redstones. The first launch from the complex was a Jupiter-A on July 19, 1956 and the final launch was Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 capsule on July 21, 1961.

LC-5 is located next to the Air Force Space & Missile Museum. The original consoles used to launch the Mercury-Redstone rockets are on display in the blockhouse. a tour of the blockhouse (and the museum) can be arranged through the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's "Cape Canaveral: Then and Now" tour. One tour is offered daily, so the number of visitors is limited by the size of the tour.

Launch chronology

 * July 19, 1956: Jupiter-A CC-13
 * September 20, 1956: Jupiter-C RS-27


 * March 1, 1957: Jupiter IRBM AM-1A
 * April 26, 1957: Jupiter IRBM AM-1B
 * May 31, 1957: Jupiter IRBM AM-1


 * March 26, 1958: Juno I RS-24 (Explorer 3)
 * May 17, 1958: Redstone RS-1002
 * July 26, 1958: Juno I RS/CC-44 (Explorer 4)
 * August 24, 1958: Juno I RS/CC-47 (Explorer 5)
 * October 23, 1958: Juno I RS/CC-49 (Beacon 1)
 * December 6, 1958: Juno II AM-11 (Pioneer 3)


 * January 22, 1959: Jupiter IRBM CM-21
 * March 3, 1959: Juno II AM-14 (Pioneer 4)
 * May 14, 1959: Jupiter IRBM AM-17
 * July 16, 1959: Juno II AM-16 (Explorer S-1, failed)
 * August 27, 1959: Jupiter IRBM AM-19
 * October 13, 1959: Juno II AM-19A (Explorer 7)


 * November 21, 1960: Redstone MRLV-1 (MR-1)
 * December 19, 1960: Redstone MRLV-3 (MR-1A)


 * January 31, 1961: Redstone MRLV-2 (MR-2)
 * March 24, 1961: Redstone MRLV-5 (MR-BD)
 * May 5, 1961: Redstone MRLV-7 (MR-3)
 * July 21, 1961: Redstone MRLV-8 (MR-4)