Together with Launch Complexes
11,
12 and
14, LC-13 featured a more robust design than many contemporary pads due to the greater power of the Atlas compared to other rockets of the time. It was larger and featured a concrete launch pedestal that was tall and a reinforced
blockhouse. The rockets were delivered to the launch pad by a ramp on the south side of the launch pedestal.
SM-65 Atlas (1956–1961) Starting in 1958,
Atlas B,
D,
E and
F missiles were tested from the complex. One on-pad explosion occurred, the launch of Missile 51D in March 1960, which suffered combustion instability within seconds of launch. The Atlas fell back onto LC-13 in a huge fireball, putting the pad out of commission for the entire spring and summer of 1960. Prior to the launch of Atlas 51D, the separate turbine exhaust ducts had been removed from the four Atlas pads at CCAS. A few weeks later, another Atlas exploded on LC-11 and it was then decided to reinstall the exhaust ducts, although it was considered unlikely that they had anything to do with the failures. The next launch hosted from LC-13 was the first Atlas E test on October 11, exactly seven months after the accident with Missile 51D. Afterwards, LC-13 remained the primary East Coast testing site for Atlas E missiles, with Atlas F tests mainly running from LC-11 (Missile 2F in August 1961 was the only F-series Atlas launched from LC-13).
Atlas-Agena (1962–1978) Between February 1962 and October 1963 the pad was converted for use by
Atlas-Agena. The modifications were more extensive than the conversions of LC-12 and LC-14 with the mobile service tower being demolished and replaced with a new, larger tower. The first launch from the renovated pad was
Vela 1 on October 17, 1963. Significant launches included: •
Lunar Orbiter 1 on August 10, 1966. It photographed proposed landing sites for
Apollo and
Surveyor spacecraft on the
Moon, and returned the first pictures of the Earth from lunar orbit. • Several classified payloads for the
National Reconnaissance Office, believed to include
Canyon and
Rhyolite satellites. The final launch from LC-13 was a Rhyolite satellite on April 7, 1978, using an Atlas-Agena. The pad was deactivated from 1980 to 2015. On April 16, 1984, it was added to the US
National Register of Historic Places; however it was not maintained and gradually deteriorated. The
mobile service tower was demolished on August 6, 2005 as a safety precaution due to structural damage by
corrosion. The
blockhouse was demolished in 2012.
Landing Zones 1 and 2 (from 2015) first stage touching down on Landing Zone 1 On February 10, 2015, the Air Force announced that
SpaceX signed a five-year lease for LC-13 to be used as a landing site for the first stage of their
reusable launch vehicle, the
Falcon 9. Over the next several months, the area east of the old launch architecture such as the mobile service tower track was torn up and transformed into a circular landing pad 195 m (640 ft) diameter named Landing Zone 1. Initially, the company planned to convert the facility into a set of five discrete landing zones, one large primary pad with four smaller alternate pads surrounding it. However, other changes in future SpaceX plans—most notably the cancellation of a reusable Falcon 9 second stage in favor of what eventually became
Starship—resulted in only one pad being actually constructed. LZ-1 hosted its first landing on December 22, 2015 as part of
Falcon 9's 20th flight, carrying eleven
Orbcomm-OG2 satellites. In July 2016, SpaceX applied for permission on building two additional landing pads at LC-13, to be used as a site for the two side boosters of
Falcon Heavy. This eventually resulted in the construction of Landing Zone 2, located at the former complex retention pool north of the Atlas pad and sized 126 m (415 ft) in diameter. LZ-2 first saw use as part of
Falcon Heavy's maiden flight on 6 February 2018, and was first used for a standard Falcon 9 booster on December 11, 2022 as part of
Hakuto-R Mission 1. During a press conference leading up to the launch of
SpaceX Crew-11,
William Gerstenmaier announced on July 30, 2025 that LZ-1 would be decommissioned following the flight on 1 August, to be replaced with landing areas located adjacent to their launch pads at
Space Launch Complex 40 and
Launch Complex 39A. Landing Zone 2 continued to be used for Falcon 9 recoveries until its last landing for
NROL-77 mission on December 9, 2025, while the new pads were being constructed.
Phantom Space and Vaya Space (from 2023) On March 7, 2023, the
United States Space Force announced that LC-13 was to be leased to companies
Phantom Space Corporation and
Vaya Space for respective use by their Daytona and Dauntless launch vehicles.
Space Launch Delta 45 provided justification as a way to optimize the use of excess launch property and the
Eastern Range along Florida's coastline. Unlike with the simultaneous leases granted to
Stoke Space at
LC-14 and
ABL Space Systems at
LC-15, the official transfer of operations was not performed until the expiration of the SpaceX lease at the end of July 2025. == Launch and landing history ==