Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 14

LC-14

Mission Profile

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14 (LC-14) was the launch pad for all six Project Mercury Atlas missions including John Glenn's historic Friendship 7 orbital flight on 20 February 1962, the first American to orbit Earth. LC-14 supported Atlas ICBM testing from 1957, Mercury-Atlas missions from 1960 to 1963, and later Atlas-Agena upper stage missions. It is now preserved as a national historic landmark with the original blockhouse still standing and a memorial to the Mercury Seven astronauts installed at the flame trench. The pad's Atlas erector gantry was removed after operations concluded, but the concrete flame trench and pedestal remain as tangible relics of America's earliest orbital human spaceflight program.