Cape Canaveral. Closer to the stars

Cape Canaveral, Florida - this is where the main launch pad of the Eastern missile range is located - the main space port of the United States.

Among sugar cane

Landed in the 16th century on the coast of Florida, Europeans gave cape the name Cañaveral, which in Spanish means "overgrown sugar cane." After the expulsion of the indigenous population - Timakua Indian tribes, kalus and seminoles - scattered farms were established on the Cape lands, and fishermen and shrimp farmers on the coast.

By the middle of the last century, the emerging American astronautics required a test range for testing missiles. Since 1948, work has begun on the reorganization of the Naval Station "Banana River" (US Navy) and the creation on its basis of the US Air Force base and testing center. The location was not chosen by chance. The low density and proximity of the Atlantic Ocean minimized the danger to the environment in case of unsuccessful suborbital launches.

If you find Cape Canaveral (the cosmodrome) on the map, a rather low latitude of the locality - 28 ˚ N For comparison: Baikonur - 45 ˚ N. This guarantees additional benefits:

• To achieve the first cosmic speed , the kinetic energy of the Earth's rotation is used.
• The increase in the payload mass of the rocket is up to 30%.
• Economy of fuel for the withdrawal of the device to the geostationary orbit.

First launches

The first ship, a two-stage carrier, the cosmodrome on Cape Canaveral sent to the sky in July 1950. The booster rocket "Bumper-2" made it possible to reach a record altitude of 400 km. But the attempt to bring the first artificial satellite to near-earth orbit in December 1957 ended in failure - the explosion of fuel tanks destroyed the carrier rocket Avangard TV-3 two seconds after the launch. In 1958, the work on the exploration of outer space and the creation of a scientific and technical base was led by the newly created department of the federal government - NASA.

Exploitation of the launch complex also revealed the negative factors of the terrain: Cape Canaveral abounded with strong hurricanes and thunderstorms. Twice the starting facilities were partially destroyed by natural disasters, and for the arrangement of lightning protection it was necessary to lay out a few tens of millions of dollars in addition.

Cape Canaveral - the cosmodrome or the air force base?

In 1962, the National Agency began construction of its own launch facilities, known as the launch center, and in November 1963 (after the assassination of the 35th US president), they were renamed the Kennedy Space Center. In total, more than thirty launch pads were erected on the territory of the cape and the neighboring island of Merritt Island, connected by a common infrastructure.

In the press quite often, the cosmodrome on Cape Canaveral is called, in fact, two administrative units belonging to different government structures. All launches until 1965 were carried out from the air force base. The most famous mission:

• Launch of the first American satellite into orbit (1958).
• The first American suborbital (1961) and orbital (1962) astronaut flight.
• Launch of the first American crew of two (1964) and three (1968) people.
• Investigation of the cosmic bodies of the solar system by interplanetary automatic stations.

From "Gemini" to "Shuttle"

The beginning of the star epic of the Center. Kennedy gave the launch of the manned "Gemini" series with two astronauts on board. In total, 12 space flights were carried out in this mission. The main achievement was the spacewalk of the astronaut E. White.

Cape Canaveral escorted to the flight of all astronauts who visited the natural satellite of the Earth. All launches under the program for the preparation and implementation of manned flight and landing on the Moon ("Apollo") were made by the launch pad of the Center.

From here, five American shuttles-space shuttles-began their journey to near-earth trajectories. From 1981 to 2011, 135 flights were carried out. 1,600 tons of useful cargo and equipment were delivered to orbit, a lot of research and repair works were carried out.

Today and tomorrow

Since 2011, Cape Canaveral does not carry out manned launches. In connection with the reduction in the funding of space programs, only four launching sites are maintained. Some of the complexes are refitted and upgraded to launch new carriers. For example, the installation of the LC-39A (for the first time since 2011) is preparing to send into space rockets of the Falcon 9FT series. For February-March 2017, three starts are planned.

The severance of economic ties with Russia calls into question some of the stellar projects of the United States. More and more important is the development of private space agencies. So, the projects Dragon and Falcon-9 from the company SpaceX are designed to reduce the dependence of the industry on components from Russia. Meanwhile, NPO Energomash confirmed its readiness to deliver 14 RD-181 missile engines in the United States within two years on the previously concluded agreement.