SpaceX, Air Force sign deal for landing pad at Cape

SpaceX and the Air Force have reached an agreement to use a former Atlas launch pad on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as a landing site for returning Falcon rocket boosters.

"The way we see it, this is a classic combination of a highly successful launch past morphing into an equally promising future," Brig. Gen. Nina Armagno, commander of the 45th Space Wing, said in a statement.

Before flying boosters back to shore, SpaceX must first show it can land safely on an ocean platform. The company will make a second attempt to do that today after a planned 6:05 p.m. launch of a Falcon 9 with the Deep Space Climate Observatory.

SpaceX envisions flying rockets back to shore, quickly refurbishing them and readying them for additional flights, a capability the company is confident would dramatically lower launch costs and revolutionize the industry.

Now, liquid-fueled orbital rockets are called "expendable," and are discarded after one use.

SpaceX twice has landed boosters softly in the Atlantic Ocean, where they tipped over and broke apart in the waves.

Last month, SpaceX attempted to land a 14-story Falcon 9 booster on a 300-foot-long platform it has dubbed the "autonomous spaceport drone ship." That ended in a fiery explosionas the booster hit the platform at an angle/

It has not been determined how many ocean platform landings might be attempted before trying to return a booster to the Cape.

Located on "Missile Row," Launch Complex 13 first supported a test of an Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile in 1958, and later launches of unmanned planetary probes for NASA and classified Air Force missions. It was deactivated in 1978 after more than 50 launches and designated part of a National Historic Landmark, according to Air Force records.

"For decades, we have been refining our procedures for getting successful launches skyward here on the Eastern Range. Now we're looking at processes on how to bring first-stage rockets back to earth at the first landing pad at the Cape," Armagno said. "We live in exciting times here on the Space Coast."

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean