MLV Launch Complex 39

Mission Profile

MLV Launch Complex 39 was a conceptual design study from 1970 for an expanded Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center capable of supporting the proposed Saturn V Multi-purpose Launch Vehicle (MLV) series, which would have required larger mobile launcher platforms, taller launch umbilical towers, and potentially new or significantly expanded launch pads. The concepts were studied as part of NASA's ambitious post-Apollo planning that envisioned an expanding space program requiring increasingly capable launch infrastructure. As with all Saturn V MLV concepts, the LC-39 MLV expansion was shelved when NASA's budget and ambitions contracted dramatically in the early 1970s, with the existing LC-39 infrastructure instead being repurposed for the Space Shuttle program.