SLC-40
SPACEX · FALCON 9
The workhorse. Starlink batches, commercial and government satellites and cargo Dragon missions to the space station. This is where the great majority of launches from the station come from.
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· CAPE CANAVERAL
· CAPE CANAVERALCape Canaveral Launch Schedule
SITE CCSFS
28.49°N 80.57°W
PADS 3
RECORDED 1123
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station sits on a barrier island on the Atlantic coast of Florida and has been launching rockets since 1950. Launch Library 2 counts 1123 launches from this site to date. Three pads are in regular use today: SLC-40, SLC-41 and LC-36. Everything below is written into this page by the server, so it reads the same for people and for machines.
When is the next launch from Cape Canaveral?
Every launch currently on the books for this site, earliest first. Only rows with a clock time have a confirmed liftoff time. Where a launch provider has given no more than a month, a quarter or a year, that is what you see, because a made-up time would be worse than none.
| LIFTOFF (UTC) | ROCKET · MISSION | PROVIDER | PAD | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falcon 9 Block 5 BlueBird 11-13 (Block 2 #6-8) | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | GO | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Starlink Group 10-19 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | GO | |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 Globalstar 2-R Mission 1 (x 9) | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | TBD |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 Crew-13 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | TBD |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 O3b mPower 11-13 | SpX | pad not yet assigned | TBD |
date not yet set | Vulcan VC6L Amazon Leo (LV-01) | ULA | Space Launch Complex 41 | TBD |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Mission 2 | SpX | pad not yet assigned | TBD |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 SDA Tranche 2 Transport Layer D | SpX | pad not yet assigned | TBD |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 Telesat Lightspeed 1 | SpX | pad not yet assigned | TBD |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 CHORUS | SpX | pad not yet assigned | TBD |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 Cygnus CRS-2 NG-25 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | TBD |
date not yet set | Falcon 9 Block 5 Dragon CRS-2 SpX-35 | SpX | pad not yet assigned | TBD |
Last updated 02 Aug 2026 12:25 UTC · 12 upcoming and 12 recent launches from this site.
WHICH ROCKETS LAUNCH FROM CAPE CANAVERAL?
Three orbital pads are in regular use. Which one a mission uses tells you a lot about what is flying, because each pad belongs to one operator.
SLC-41
UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE · ATLAS V, VULCAN
The ULA pad. Atlas V has flown from here for two decades and is being replaced by Vulcan Centaur, which carries national security payloads and the first Amazon Leo satellites.
LC-36
BLUE ORIGIN · NEW GLENN
A historic Atlas complex from the 1960s, rebuilt by Blue Origin for the heavy-lift New Glenn. The newest of the three in operation.
A common mix-up: Falcon Heavy and crewed Dragon flights do not lift off from Cape Canaveral. They use pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, which is a separate site a few miles up the coast and shows separately in the data. If a launch page says Cape Canaveral for a crewed mission, it is wrong.
WHERE CAN YOU WATCH A LAUNCH AT CAPE CANAVERAL?
The pads themselves are on an active Space Force station and closed to the public. Everything below is what the operators publish themselves; each entry names its source, and the distances are the ones the source states, not estimates by T-Rocket.
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, main complex
6.7 MI / 10.8 KM TO SLC-40 · 7.1 MI / 11.4 KM TO SLC-41
Viewing from the North Atlantis Lawn next to Space Shuttle Atlantis, included with daily admission. No extra ticket needed.
Source: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, launch viewing locations
Banana Creek, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center
6.2 MI / 10 KM TO SLC-40 · 5.4 MI / 8.7 KM TO SLC-41
Bleacher seating at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, also included with daily admission. Closer to the ULA pad than the main complex is.
Source: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, launch viewing locations
The Gantry at LC-39
3.4 MI / 5.5 KM TO SLC-40 · 2.3 MI / 3.7 KM TO SLC-41
The closest viewing area on the station itself, and the only one on this list that is inside the gate. It needs a separate ticket on top of daily admission.
Source: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, launch viewing locations
Playalinda Beach, Canaveral National Seashore
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE · CLOSEST PUBLIC BEACH VIEW
The Park Service calls the Playalinda District the closest view of the launches. Park hours are 06:00 to 20:00 in summer and 06:00 to 18:00 in winter, and viewing is limited to those hours. Playalinda Beach Road closes between the entry gate and parking lot 1 thirty minutes before liftoff and reopens straight after a successful launch or a confirmed cancellation. The Park Service advises being in the park a few hours early and warns that it restricts entry once the park reaches capacity.
Source: National Park Service, Canaveral National Seashore, rocket launch viewing
Space View Park and the riverfront, Titusville
UNDER 15 MI / 24 KM ACROSS THE INDIAN RIVER
The City of Titusville names seven public spots for launch watching on the far side of the Indian River: Space View Park, Riverfront Park, Rotary Riverfront Park, Sand Point Park, William J. Manzo Park, the Municipal Marina and the Max Brewer Bridge. Of these the city gives a distance only for Space View Park, which it puts at less than 15 miles directly across from the launch pads.
Source: City of Titusville, rocket launches
Jetty Park, Port Canaveral
DAY PASS REQUIRED
The port runs Jetty Park at 445 Challenger Road and sells day park passes for it. Its own page advertises views of rocket launches but states neither a distance nor opening hours.
Source: Canaveral Port Authority, Jetty Park
Access rules, road closures, opening hours and ticket prices change from launch to
launch, and T-Rocket does not verify them on the ground. Treat everything above as a starting point
and check the operator directly before you travel.
What launched from Cape Canaveral recently?
The most recent flights from this site, newest first. Useful when the schedule ahead is thin: the cadence here is what tells you how busy the pad really is.
| LIFTOFF (UTC) | ROCKET · MISSION | PROVIDER | PAD | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falcon 9 Block 5 NROL-95 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 MRV-1 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Starlink Group 10-45 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Starlink Group 10-42 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Starlink Group 10-50 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Atlas V 551 Amazon Leo (LA-08) | ULA | Space Launch Complex 41 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Sirius SXM-11 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Project Starfall Demonstration Mission | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 BlueBird 8-10 (Block 2 #3-5) | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Starlink Group 10-54 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Starlink Group 10-35 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS | |
| Falcon 9 Block 5 Starlink Group 10-43 | SpX | Space Launch Complex 40 | SUCCESS |
CAPE CANAVERAL, EXPLAINED
Why do so many rockets launch from Cape Canaveral?
Geography, and it is worth understanding because it explains the whole map. Florida lies closer to the equator than almost anywhere else in the continental United States, and the Earth turns fastest at the equator. A rocket launched eastward starts out with that speed already in the bank, which means more payload for the same vehicle. The second reason is what lies east of the pads: open Atlantic. A spent booster, or a flight that goes wrong, comes down over water instead of over people. Put those two together and the Florida coast is close to ideal, which is why the United States built its main range here in the 1950s and why it is still the busiest launch site on Earth.
What is the difference between Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center?
They are neighbours, not the same place. Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is run by the United States Space Force and holds SLC-40, SLC-41 and LC-36. Kennedy Space Center is NASA territory just to the north and holds LC-39A and LC-39B, the pads built for Apollo and the Space Shuttle. Falcon Heavy, crewed Dragon and the Artemis rockets fly from Kennedy. Because the two sit within a few miles of each other, reporting often blurs them, but the launch data keeps them apart and so does this site.
What does NET mean in the table above?
NET is short for no earlier than. It is the earliest moment a launch can happen, not a promise. A launch can slip later by minutes or by months, and it will never lift off before the time shown. The status tells you how firm the date is: GO means confirmed for the listed time, TBC means the date is to be confirmed, TBD means it is still to be determined. Rows on this page that show only a month or a quarter are launches where the provider has not committed to a date at all.
Where do these launch times come from?
From Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs, refetched by the T-Rocket server and written straight into this page. The site descriptions, the pad notes and the viewing section are written by T-Rocket from the sources named against each entry. What every value means and how fresh it is, is documented under data sources. T-Rocket is not an official source: only the launch provider can confirm a launch.
Launch data: Launch Library 2 · The Space Devs,
refreshed by the server. Viewing information from Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the National
Park Service, the City of Titusville and the Canaveral Port Authority, as cited in each entry, checked
1 August 2026. All information without guarantee: launch times change frequently, and access rules at
the site can change without notice.
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