SpaceX, Air Force sign deal for landing pad

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX and the U.S. Air Force have reached an agreement to use a former Atlas launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as a landing site for returning Falcon rocket boosters, the 45th Space Wing confirmed Tuesday.

Florida Today reported last month that a five-year lease of Launch Complex 13 was expected by the end of January.

"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 that it can land safely on an ocean platform.

The company will make a second attempt to do that Tuesday after a planned 6:05 p.m. ET launch of a Falcon 9 with the Deep Space Climate Observatory, the controversial camera that will gather data on space weather and pictures of the Earth that then-Vice President Al Gore dreamed up almost 20 years ago as a way to increase awareness about the environment.

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

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," Armagno said. "Now we're looking at processes on how to bring first-stage rockets back to earth at the first landing pad at the Cape."