Launches and Landings by CoenM

What LAUNCH COMPLEX at Kennedy Space Center was the site for all Apollo and Space Shuttle launches, though currently only pad A is operating as a launch site for SpaceX's Falcon rockets?

What US STATE's Wallops Island, operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center, is used primarily to launch rockets with scientific or research payloads?

What COSMODROME, currently under lease to the Russians by Kazakhstan, was the site of both the Sputnik and Gagarin launches?

What US AIR FORCE BASE, run by the 30th Space Wing of the US Air Force Space Command, serves as a testing base for missiles (including Thor, Atlas, and Minuteman) and a West Coast launch site for satellites going into polar orbit?

While the base in question 4 was planned, but never used, as a Space Shuttle launch and landing site, what OTHER AIR FORCE BASE did host a number of shuttle landings, including all test landings of the shuttle Enterprise?

What US STATE is the site to the White Sands facility that was the landing site of the third Space Shuttle mission and the spaceport that will (someday) be the site of Virgin Galactic's operations?

What OVERSEAS REGION AND DEPARTMENT OF FRANCE's spaceport, opened near Kourou in 1968, has hosted all of the European Space Agency's launches?

China's Shenzou manned spaceflight program has seen all of its launches take place at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, which is located in the Gobi Desert of what AUTONOMOUS REGION, even though the center is named for a city in Gansu province?

KSC's Launch Complex 5 was used for many early Redstone and Jupiter launches, including the Mercury-Redstone 3 launch that sent Alan Shepard into space in a spacecraft with what CALL SIGN?

While most splashdowns miss by a kilometer or two, Scott Carpenter's landing in Aurora 7 missed by over 400 km in part due to being distracted by what INSECT-NAMED PARTICLES, first reported by John Glenn, that are believed to be illuminated flakes of frost coming off of the capsule?

What ASTRONAUT nearly drowned after a 1961 splashdown when the bolts to his capsule's door blew too early, sinking the capsule? He would later die in the Apollo 1 fire.

The two drone ships use by SpaceX for landings of their resuable boosters are named for sentient starships found in the Culture universe of what SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR?