# Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 17

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Space Launch Complex 17 (SLC-17), previously designated Launch Complex 17 (LC-17), was a launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida used for Thor and Delta launch vehicles launches between 1958 and 2011.
Originally built in 1956, SLC-17 features two expendable launch vehicle (ELV) launch pads, SLC-17A and SLC-17B. The pads were operated by the 45th Space Wing and have supported more than 300 Department of Defense, NASA and commercial missile and rocket launches.

## History

SLC-17 was built in 1956 by the United States Air Force for use with the PGM-17 Thor missile, the first operational ballistic missile in the arsenal of the United States. It was initially designed for testing suborbital launches of the Thor, in accordance to the IRBM's planned stationing in the United Kingdom as part of Project Emily. Pad 17A supported its first Thor missile launch on 3 August 1957, and Pad 17B supported its first Thor launch on 25 January 1957. As the Thor got wound down from missile use due to the advent of longer-range ICBMs, the site was upgraded in the early 1960s to support a variety of space-oriented launch vehicles derived from the basic Thor booster. Initially starting with the Thor-Able in 1958, these Thor-based rockets came to be called the Delta family of launch vehicles.
Thirty-five early Delta rocket missions were launched from Complex 17 between the beginning of 1960 and the end of 1965. The Air Force transferred Launch Complex 17A to NASA in 1965, but the site was returned to the military in 1988 to support McDonnell Douglas's Delta II program.
As Delta II launches continued over the next decades, Pad 17B was modified in 1997 to support a new, more powerful launch vehicle, the Delta III, which made its maiden flight from the complex on 26 August 1998. The launch ended in failure, as did a second launch the next year. After a third launch on 23 August 2000 placed a mass simulator into a lower than planned orbit, the program was abandoned.
Among the major NASA missions launched from the complex were the Explorer and Pioneer space probes, all of the Orbiting Solar Observatories, the Solar Maximum Mission, biological satellites (Biosatellite program), the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), the TIROS and GOES meteorology satellites, and the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Following the last military launch, in August 2009, SLC-17A was withdrawn from use, and LC-17B was transferred to NASA for two remaining launches. On 10 September 2011, a Delta II 7920H-10C made the final launch from SLC-17B, carrying NASA's GRAIL spacecraft. All remaining Delta II launches were made from SLC-2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California until its ultimate retirement in 2018.
At 11:00 UTC (7:00 a.m. EDT) on 12 July 2018, both launch towers had been demolished via controlled demolition to make way for Moon Express to build and test its lunar lander.
As of August 2024, the United States Space Force (having taken over the Air Force's jurisdiction) plans to fully demolish SLC-17 and the neighboring LC-18 in favor of extending Lighthouse Road and reconnecting its two separate sections back together.

## Launch statistics
### SLC-17A

* Thor
* Thor-Able
* Thor-Ablestar
* Thor-Delta
* Delta II

### SLC-17B

* Thor
* Thor-Ablestar
* Thor-Delta
* Delta II
* Delta III
* Spaceflight portal

## Gallery

* SLC-17 in the 1960s, holding a Thor-Delta carrying TIROS satellites
* SLC-17 showing pads A and B in 2007
* SLC-17 blockhouse with the Mobile Service Tower in the distance.
* The two launch towers of SLC-17 getting demolished in 2018