Cape Canaveral Air Station Launch Complex. Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Command's 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. The facility is south-southeast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island. Many major American space exploration "firsts" were launched from CCAFS, including the first Earth satellite (1958), first American astronaut (1961), first American astronaut in orbit (1962), first two-man American spacecraft (1965), first unmanned lunar landing (1966), and first three-man spacecraft (1968). It was also the launch site for the first spacecraft to ever fly past the other planets in the Solar System (1962–1977), the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (1971) and roam its surface (1996), the first American spacecraft to orbit and land on Venus (1978), the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn (2004), and to orbit Mercury (2011). Five 1 ½†fragments which were part of the launch complex: metal from the Pad 5 Gantry, cable to the ready room, linoleum from the white room, metal from the gantry from which Explorer I was launched and metal from complex 34. Each is mounted to an 8 ¼†x 10 ½†descriptive card.