Early Cold War anxiety over nuclear conflict generated an unusually rapid speed of proving grounds, a site designated for military tests in technology, along the Florida coastline. Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex—a region historically occupied by the native Ais tribe and their “crude and flimsy” structures—was built over a wasteland of unstable grounds. This remote wasteland was intentionally selected by the U.S. military to construct its missile operations; a suitable decision for military security and economic stability with close proximity to the equator for launching rockets into orbit. As development of one missile technology emerged, so too did its associated infrastructure in the remote Florida wetlands. With the fear of nuclear warfare conflict on the rise during the mid-late 1950s, the launch pad infrastructures had increasingly become the image of projecting missile muscle in hopes to deter nuclear war. Beginning with a brief account of early Cape Canaveral, the seemingly rationalized techno-spatial landscapes of scientific struggle, Launch Complex 18 constructed in 1955, illustrate a culture of intense progress followed by abrupt decline and varied commemoration. This paper suggests the configuration of military infrastructure in the once remote wasteland of Florida’s coast was not a process of technologically rationalized proving ground, but instead a process of operational flexibility and ultimately a means for territorial projection and political control.
