Landing Zones 1 and 2

Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, also known as LZ-1 and LZ-2 respectively, are landing facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station used by SpaceX. They allowed the company to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket or the two side boosters of its Falcon Heavy rocket.

The facilities were built on land leased in February 2015 on the site of Launch Complex 13. Landing Zone 1 saw its first use on 21 December 2015 when B1019 touched down during Falcon 9 flight 20. Landing Zone 2 was added ahead of the first Falcon Heavy test flight on 6 February 2018. During a Falcon Heavy launch, both LZs are used, allowing the two side boosters to land simultaneously.

On August 1, 2025, Landing Zone 1 was decommissioned following the SpaceX Crew-11 mission ahead of being reactivated as Space Launch Complex 13. Landing Zone 2 continues to be used for Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 recoveries. SpaceX is constructing replacement landing zones adjacent to Launch Complex 39A and Space Launch Complex 40.

Site Landing Zones 1 and 2 are located at the location of the former Launch Complex 13, which has been demolished and replaced by two circular landing pads in diameter and marked with a stylized X from the SpaceX company logo. Four more diameter pads were initially planned to be built to support the simultaneous recovery of additional boosters used by the Falcon Heavy, although only one extra pad has been built. Planned infrastructure additions to support operations includes improved roadways for crane movement, a rocket pedestal area, remote-controlled fire suppression systems in case of a landing failure, and a large concrete foundation, away from the future three landing pads, for attaching the booster stage when taking the rocket from vertical to horizontal orientation.

Operations at the facility began after seven earlier landing tests by SpaceX, five of which involved intentional descents into the open ocean, followed by two failed landing tests on an ocean-going platform. As of March 2, 2015, the Air Force's sign for LC-13 was briefly replaced with a sign identifying it as Landing Complex. The site was renamed Landing Zone prior to its first use as a landing site. Elon Musk indicated in January 2016 that he thought the likelihood of successful landings for all of the attempted landings in 2016 would be approximately 70 percent, hopefully rising to 90 percent in 2017, and cautioned that the company expects a few more failures.

In July 2016, SpaceX applied for permission to build two additional landing pads at Landing Zone 1 for landing the boosters from Falcon Heavy flights.

In May 2017, construction began on a second, smaller landing pad known as Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2). Located approximately northwest of the original pad, LZ-2 is primarily used for landing side boosters of Falcon Heavy missions. By June 2017, the pad was enhanced with radar-reflective paint to improve landing precision.

, Falcon 9 boosters typically land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) and only occasionally use LZ-2. One such exception occurred on December 11, 2022, during the Hakuto-R Mission 1, when booster B1073-5 landed on LZ-2. At the time, LZ-1 was occupied by booster B1069-4 from the OneWeb Flight #15 mission, launched on December 8, 2022. This marked the first time a Falcon 9 booster landed on LZ-2.

During a press conference ahead of the Crew-11 mission, William Gerstenmaier announced that the landing of booster B1094 would mark the final use of Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1). SpaceX's lease on the Launch Complex 13 site expired at the end of July 2025 and transitioned to joint use by Vaya Space and Phantom Space. Landing Zone 2 continues to be used for Falcon Heavy recoveries, with the vast majority of Falcon 9 landings being shifted to Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40) following the NROL-77 mission on December 9, 2025.

On February 13, 2026, SpaceX officially activated LZ-40 during the launch of their Crew-12 mission, a new landing zone located next to its launch facility at SLC-40. Although LZ-1 stays retired, it was temporarily reactivated to assist in the landing of Falcon Heavy booster B1104-2 on October 1, 2026 as part of the NROL-97 mission, as LZ-40 was already occupied by the boosted used during SpaceX's Crew-13 mission.

Landing history

LZ-1

LZ-2

Booster landings

Detailed history For landings at sea, see Autonomous spaceport drone shipAfter approval from the FAA, SpaceX accomplished its first successful landing at the complex with Falcon 9 flight 20 on December 22, 2015 UTC; this was the 8th controlled-descent test of a Falcon 9 first stage. A second successful landing at LZ-1 took place shortly after midnight, local time (EDT) on July 18, 2016, as part of the CRS-9 mission, which was the Falcon 9's 27th flight.SpaceX launches space station docking port for NASA, The Associated Press, July 18, 2016 The third successful landing was by the CRS-10 mission's first stage on February 19, 2017, which was the Falcon 9's 30th flight. Landing Zone 2 was first used by the maiden launch of Falcon Heavy on February 6, 2018, when the rocket's two side boosters touched down on LZ-1 and LZ-2. Later on, SpaceX will retire these two landing zones and add three landing zones for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets to conduct to "Return-to-launch-site" landings, two at LC-39A and one at SLC-40. The last landing on LZ-1 occurred on 1 August 2025.

Date (UTC) Mission Launch vehicle Booster ID Flight No. Zone Result December 22, 2015 01:39 OG2-F2 Falcon 9 Full Thrust B1019-1 20 LZ-1 colspan=2 July 18, 2016 04:53 SpaceX CRS-9 Falcon 9 Full Thrust B1025-1 27 LZ-1 colspan=2 February 19, 2017 14:47 SpaceX CRS-10 Falcon 9 Full Thrust B1031-1 30 LZ-1 colspan=2 May 1, 2017 11:24 NROL-76 Falcon 9 Full Thrust B1032-1 33 LZ-1 colspan=2 June 3, 2017 21:15 SpaceX CRS-11 Falcon 9 Full Thrust B1035-1 35 LZ-1 colspan=2 August 14, 2017 16:39 SpaceX CRS-12 Falcon 9 Block 4 B1039-1 39 LZ-1 colspan=2 September 7, 2017 Boeing X-37B OTV-5 Falcon 9 Block 4 B1040-1 41 LZ-1 colspan=2 December 15, 2017 SpaceX CRS-13 Falcon 9 Full Thrust B1035-2 45 LZ-1 colspan=2 January 8, 2018 Zuma Falcon 9 Block 4 B1043-1 47 LZ-1 colspan=2 February 6, 2018 Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster Falcon Heavy B1023-2, B1025-2 FH #1 LZ-1 B1023-2 LZ-2 B1025-2 B1023-2 B1025-2 December 5, 2018 SpaceX CRS-16 Falcon 9 Block 5 B1050-1 65 LZ-1 colspan=2 (Diverted to ocean) April 11, 2019 Arabsat-6A Falcon Heavy B1052-1, B1053-1FH #2 LZ-1 B1052-1 LZ-2 B1053-1 B1052-1 B1053-1June 25, 2019STP-2Falcon HeavyB1052.2, B1053.2FH #3LZ-1 B1052-2LZ-2 B1053-2 B1052-2 B1053-2July 25, 2019SpaceX CRS-18Falcon 9 Block 5 B1056-273LZ-1 colspan=2 March 7, 2020SpaceX CRS-20Falcon 9 Block 5 B1059-282LZ-1 colspan=2 August 30, 2020SAOCOM 1BFalcon 9 Block 5 B1059-492LZ-1 colspan=2 December 19, 2020NROL-108Falcon 9 Block 5 B1059-5103LZ-1 colspan=2 June 25, 2021Transporter-2Falcon 9 Block 5 B1060-8123LZ-1 colspan=2 January 13, 2022Transporter-3 Falcon 9 Block 5B1058-10136LZ-1 colspan=2 January 31, 2022CSG-2Falcon 9 Block 5 B1052-3138LZ-1 colspan=2 May 25, 2022Transporter-5Falcon 9 Block 5 B1061-8156LZ-1 colspan=2 November 1, 2022USSF-44Falcon Heavy B1064-1, B1065-1FH #4LZ-1 B1064-1LZ-2 B1065-1 B1064-1 B1065-1December 8, 2022OneWeb #15Falcon 9 Block 5 B1069-4188LZ-1 colspan=2 December 11, 2022Hakuto-R Mission 1(including Transformable Lunar Robot and Emirates Lunar Mission)Lunar FlashlightFalcon 9 Block 5 B1073-5189LZ-2 colspan=2 January 3, 2023Transporter-6Falcon 9 Block 5 B1060-15195LZ-1 colspan=2 January 10, 2023OneWeb #16Falcon 9 Block 5 B1076.2196LZ-1 colspan=2 January 15, 2023USSF-67Falcon Heavy B1065-2, B1064-2FH #5LZ-1B1065-2LZ-2B1064-2 B1065-2 B1064-2 March 9, 2023OneWeb #17Falcon 9 Block 5 B1062-13209LZ-1 colspan=2 May 21, 2023Axiom Mission 2Falcon 9 Block 5 B1080-1226LZ-1 colspan=2 July 29, 2023EchoStar 24 (Jupiter 3)Falcon Heavy B1064-3, B1065-3FH #7LZ-1B1064-3LZ-2B1065-3 B1064-3 B1065-3August 26, 2023SpaceX Crew-7Falcon 9 Block 5 B1081.1249LZ-1 colspan=2 October 13, 2023PsycheFalcon Heavy B1064-4, B1065-4FH #8LZ-1B1064-4LZ-2B1065-4 B1064-4 B1065-4November 10, 2023SpaceX CRS-29Falcon 9 Block 5 B1081-2271LZ-1 colspan=2 December 29, 2023USSF-52 (Boeing X-37B OTV-7)Falcon Heavy B1064-5, B1065-5FH #9LZ-1B1064-5LZ-2B1065-5 B1064-5 B1065-5January 3, 2024Ovzon-3Falcon 9 Block 5 B1076-10287LZ-1 colspan=2 January 18, 2024Axiom Mission 3Falcon 9 Block 5 B1080-5291LZ-1 colspan=2 January 30, 2024Cygnus NG-20Falcon 9 Block 5 B1077-10295LZ-1 colspan=2 February 8, 2024PACEFalcon 9 Block 5 B1081-4296LZ-1 colspan=2 February 14, 2024USSF-124Falcon 9 Block 5 B1078-7298LZ-2 colspan=2 February 15, 2024IM-1 Nova-CFalcon 9 Block 5 B1060-18299LZ-1 colspan=2 March 4, 2024SpaceX Crew-8Falcon 9 Block 5 B1083-1305LZ-1 colspan=2 March 21, 2024SpaceX CRS-30Falcon 9 Block 5 B1080-6312LZ-1 colspan=2 April 7, 2024Bandwagon-1Falcon 9 Block 5 B1073-14320LZ-1 colspan=2 June 25, 2024GOES-UFalcon Heavy B1072-1, B1086-1FH #10LZ-1B1072-1LZ-2B1086-1 B1072-1 B1086-1August 4, 2024Cygnus NG-21Falcon 9 Block 5 B1080-10360LZ-1 colspan=2 August 15, 2024WorldView Legion 3 & 4Falcon 9 Block 5 B1076-16364LZ-1 colspan=2 September 12, 2024BlueBird Block 1 #1-5Falcon 9 Block 5 B1078-13373LZ-1 colspan=2 September 28, 2024SpaceX Crew-9Falcon 9 Block 5 B1085-2378LZ-1 colspan=2 November 5, 2024SpaceX CRS-31Falcon 9 Block 5 B1083-5389LZ-1 colspan=2 November 11, 2024Koreasat 6AFalcon 9 Block 5 B1067-23392LZ-1 colspan=2 February 4, 2025WorldView Legion 5 & 6Falcon 9 Block 5 B1086-4433LZ-1 colspan=2 March 14, 2025SpaceX Crew-10Falcon 9 Block 5 B1090-2446LZ-1 colspan=2 March 24, 2025NROL-69Falcon 9 Block 5 B1092-2451LZ-1 colspan=2 April 21, 2025SpaceX CRS-32Falcon 9 Block 5 B1092-3462LZ-1 colspan=2 April 22, 2025Bandwagon-3Falcon 9 Block 5 B1090-3463LZ-2 colspan=2 June 25, 2025Axiom Mission 4Falcon 9 Block 5 B1094-2495LZ-1 colspan=2 August 1, 2025SpaceX Crew-11Falcon 9 Block 5 B1094-3512LZ-1 colspan=2 August 22, 2025USSF-36 (Boeing X-37B OTV-8)Falcon 9 Block 5 B1092-6518LZ-2 colspan=2 September 14, 2025Cygnus NG-23Falcon 9 Block 5 B1094-4533LZ-2 colspan="2" November 2, 2025Bandwagon-4Falcon 9 Block 5 B1091-3557LZ-2 colspan="2" December 9, 2025NROL-77Falcon 9 Block 5 B1096-4576LZ-2 colspan="2" April 29, 2026ViaSat-3 F3Falcon Heavy B1072-2FH #12LZ-2 colspan="2" July 30, 2026NROL-95Falcon 9 Block 5 B1096-7670LZ-2 colspan="2" August 30, 2026Nancy Grace Roman Space TelescopeFalcon Heavy B1072-3FH #13LZ-2 colspan="2" October 2, 2026NROL-97Falcon Heavy B1104-2, B1072-4FH #14LZ-1B1104-2LZ-2B1072-4 B1104-2(Last LZ-1 landing) B1072-4

Landing Zones 1 and 2

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