Launch Complex 20

Space Launch Complex 20 (SLC-20) Launch Complex Usage

• February 1957 – September 1959 – Construction
• USAF missions:
  • 1 July 1960 – First Titan I ICBM launch (LOX, RP-1 propellants)
  • 13 December 1961 – Last Titan I ICBM launch
    • Total Titan I launched – 16
• 1962 – Pad transferred for space missions
  • 1 September 1964 – First Titan IIIA Space Launch Vehicle launch (N2O4, UDMH hypergolic propellants)
  • 6 May 1965 – Last Titan IIIA launch
    • Total Titan IIIA launched – 4
• Following the last Titan IIIA launch, the launch complex was deactivated
• April 1967 – Complex deactivated; June 1967 – Sold for salvage
• November 1988 – December 1989 – Modification under Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) for two Starbird program pads
  • The facility consisted of
    • two launch pads with 58′ rail launchers, Pads 20A and 20B
    • two launch equipment buildings
    • launch support center
    • payload assembly building
• SDIO missions:
  • December 1990 – May 1993 – Six sub-orbital SDIO missions launched
• 1995 – Electronic equipment and launchers removed
• 2000 – Spaceport Florida Authority built Horizontal Processing Facility and upgraded blockhouse equipment
  • • Horizontal Processing Facility – building 18705
      • • 120ft x 48ft x 30ft
        • Air Conditioned
        • 15 Ton Bridge Crane
        • Digital Phone Switch
        • Fire Protection System

• Orbital Sciences reportedly used the blockhouse as a Pegasus launch control center during the early 2000s
• NASA Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) (cryogenic test laboratory) arrived 2002; blockhouse upgraded and fiber lines installed between b/h and ATDC equipment pads
• ATDC departed Oct 2009, equipment removed, complex deactivated