Anna Forrester
SpaceX has secured a five-year lease agreement with the U.S. Air Force‘s 45th Space Wing to construct a landing pad for reusable rocket boosters at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 13Â in Florida.
The Air Force said Tuesday that 45th Space Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Nina Armagno signed the agreement for SpaceX to repurpose LC-13 as a vertical-landing site for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy first-stage boosters.
“For decades, we have been refining our procedures for getting successful launches skyward here on the Eastern Range,” Armagno said.
“Now we’re looking at processes on how to bring first-stage rockets back to earth at the first landing pad at the Cape.”
LC-13 is originally a launch pad used for Atlas rocket and missile operational and test launches.
In early January, SpaceX used an autonomous drone spaceport as a landing platform in its attempt to retrieve the booster of a Falcon 9 rocket launched to space.
