Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 16
Launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Launch Complex 16 (LC-16) is a launch pad site located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Part of the Missile Row lineup of launch pads, it was originally built for use by LGM-25 Titan missiles in the early 1960s, a variety of NASA functions in the late 1960s, and later saw tests of MGM-31 Pershing missiles in the 1970s and 1980s.
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 Titan I launch from LC-16 | |||||||||||
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| Launch site | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station | ||||||||||
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| Location | 28.5017°N 80.5518°W | ||||||||||
| Short name | LC-16 | ||||||||||
| Operator | United States Space Force (owner) Relativity Space (tenant) | ||||||||||
| Total launches | 142 | ||||||||||
| Launch pad(s) | One | ||||||||||
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Currently, LC-16 is leased to Relativity Space for future use by their Terran R launch vehicle.
LC-16 was originally built by the United States Air Force in the late 1950s as a way to test launches of their HGM-25A Titan I ICBMs, complementing LC-15 to the south and LC-19 and LC-20 to the north in accomplishing that task. Six Titan I missiles were launched from the complex between December 1959 and May 1960. These were followed by seven LGM-25C Titan II missiles, starting with the type's maiden flight on March 16, 1962. The last Titan II launch from LC-16 was conducted on May 29, 1963.
Following the end of its involvement with the Titan missile, LC-16 was released to NASA on September 16, 1964 ,[1] which used it for Gemini crew processing, and static firing tests of the Apollo Service Module's propulsion engine. Following its return to the Air Force in 1972, it was handed over to the United States Army and was converted for use by the MGM-31 Pershing missile, which made its first flight from the complex on May 7, 1974. Seventy-nine Pershing 1a and 49 Pershing II missiles were launched from LC-16. The last Pershing launch from the facility was conducted on March 21, 1988. It was deactivated the next day and subsequently decommissioned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Following a 30 year period of inactivity, it was announced on January 17, 2019 that Relativity Space had entered a 5-year agreement with the Air Force to use LC-16 to launch their in-development lifters, the smallsat-focused Terran 1 and the heavy-lift Terran R.[2][3] After spending a couple years renovating the pad to be launch-capable, Relativity performed the first orbital launch attempt from the complex with the maiden flight of Terran 1 on March 23, 2023, which resulted in a failure after the second stage failed to ignite.[4][5] Following this failure, Relativity announced that they opted to retire the Terran 1 in pursuit of developing the Terran R, thereby resuming construction work on LC-16 to support the launcher. Relativity currently expects the maiden flight of Terran R to be no earlier than 2026.[6]
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