Construction and Trident Operations This complex was built as part of the
United States Navy's
Trident II submarine-launch missile development effort. Construction was underway by early February 1984, with the first Trident II launch LC-46 occurring on 15 January 1987. A total of 19 Trident IIs were launched from the site between 15 January 1987 and 27 January 1989. After this, all subsequent Trident II testing took place at sea, and the site was deactivated. During the construction of then-called LC-46, the nearby
sounding rocket complex
LC-43 was demolished. Its operations were transferred to
LC-47.
Space Florida In 1997, Space Florida began operations at the site, and was opened for commercial space operations.
Lockheed Martin launched an
Athena II and an
Athena I from the pad in 1998 and 1999 respectively. The Athena II, launched January 7, 1998, carried the
Lunar Prospector spacecraft which orbited the
Moon. On January 27, 1999, the Athena I lifted off with Taiwan's first satellite,
ROCSAT-1, carrying experimental communications, ocean imagery, and ionospheric studies instruments. In March 2010, the USAF
45th Space Wing issued Real Property Licenses to Space Florida for Launch Complexes 36 and 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. In July 2015, the U.S. Air Force and
Orbital ATK announced a
Minotaur IV launched from SLC-46 would be used for the
ORS-5 mission in 2017. ORS-5 was successfully launched on August 26, 2017.
Ascent Abort-2 On July 2, 2019,
NASA launched a repurposed
Peacekeeper missile from SLC-46, carrying the
Orion spacecraft for the Ascent Abort-2 mission. The mission's goal was to demonstrate and qualify the
Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) that will allow the astronaut crew to safely escape in the event of an emergency during launch pad operations, through the ascent phase of the Orion vehicle.
Astra On December 6, 2021,
Astra announced plans to launch its small orbital rockets from SLC-46 as soon as February 2022. The company was planning for a launch cadence of once a month for two years. On 10 February 2022, the first Astra launch from SLC-46 resulted in failure. After two previous scrubbed launch attempts in the preceding days, the launch of the rocket occurred nominally. However, first stage separation failed, leading to the second stage to spin out of control, and the rocket and payload were lost. On 12 June 2022, the second Astra launch from SLC-46 also resulted in failure. Astra's
Rocket 3.3 vehicle (serial number LV0010) carrying two
TROPICS CubeSats for
NASA failed to reach orbit and the satellites were lost.
ABL and Dark Eagle In March 2023,
ABL Space Systems announced that they would be using SLC-46 as a temporary launching site for their
RS1. That month, they were leased
Launch Complex 15 by the
United States Space Force, and clarified that this measure was taken while LC-15 undergoes reactivation. ABL stated their first launch from Pad 46 would happen later in the year. However, no launch has yet occurred and future outlooks remain in question following ABL's shift from commercial launches to military applications in October 2024. On December 12, 2024, the
United States Army and
United States Navy launched and tested their
Dark Eagle Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon from SLC-46 in a joint exercise. A second test was conducted the next year, on April 25.
Future Super-Heavy launch On December 19, 2025, the
United States Space Force issued an RFI to lease SLC-46 for launches of a Super-Heavy class launch vehicle. ==Launch statistics==