Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base
Aerial view of Vandenberg AFB
General Information
Alias	IATA: VBG ICAO: KVBG FAA LID: VBG
Owner	US Department of Defence
Operator	US Air Force
Location	Santa Barbara County, CA
Use	Air Force base Launch complex Space Shuttle launch site Space Shuttle landing site
Formed	1941
Maps
	Vandenberg AFB on US map

The Vandenberg Air Force Base is a US Air Force space launch base located in Santa Barbara County, California used to launch spacecraft and also to perform missile testing.

History

Vandenberg Air Force Base is mainly used for military satellite launches and missile testing. With the development of the Space Shuttle as the new space launch system in the late 70s, Vandenberg was expanded to serve as launch and landing site for the Air Force own shuttle fleet.

In fall 1981, the Pentagon confirmed the launch of the first Space Shuttle solely intended for military use. It launched from Vandenberg AFB and returnd to the base after spending 3 days in orbit.

In May 1983, Margo Madison asked General Nelson Bradford to free up some space for a couple of polar launches from Vandenberg, but he remembered her that the Pentagon doesn't like unsecured vehicles and crews at Vandenberg, especially since the Berlin crisis the year before.

In September 1983, President Reagan decided to arm Pathfinder, the first of a new series of second generation Space Shuttles, with a battery of four Phoenix missiles, a space variant of the AIM-54C, that had been in development at Vandenberg for their military shuttles.

By 1995, NASA Space Shuttles landed occasionally at Vandenberg as well. End of March, the shuttle Challenger was avaiting transport from Vandenberg after returning from Jamestown mission 226.

Gallery

Pentagon confirms military shuttle launch

Behind the scenes

In the real world, Vandenberg was selected as the West Coast Space Shuttle launch and landing site, but it was never used as such. Over US$ 4 billion was spent on modifications to the complex and construction of associated infrastructure. Its launch pad, SLC-6, was still being prepared for its first Shuttle launch, targeted for 15 October 1986, when the Challenger disaster grounded the Shuttle fleet and finally led to the decision to cancel all west coast shuttle launches.

Naming

After activiation in 1941, the base was named "Camp Cooke", in honor of Major General Phillip St. George Cooke, a US Army cavalry officer who served as a Union General in the American Civil War.
In 1957, it was renamed to "Cooke Air Force Base".
In 1958, Cooke AFB was renamed again to "Vandenberg Air Force Base", in honor of General Hoyt Vandenberg, the Air Force's second Chief of Staff.
Since 2021, the current name of the base is "Vandenberg Space Force Base".

Gallery

Real life images:

Vandenberg aerial view, 1968

Titan II launch from Vandenberg, 1975

Shuttle Enterprise in Vandenberg, 1985

Satellite image of Vandenberg AFB, 2020

See also

• Other USAF facilities:
  • Cape Kennedy
  • Edwards Air Force Base
  • Ellington Air Force Base
  • US Air Force Plant 42
• Other NASA facilites:
  • Johnson Space Center (JSC, later CSC)
  • Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
  • Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)
  • Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
  • NASA Flight Research Center (Edwards AFB) (FRC)
  • McMurdo Station (NASA annex)
  • Carl Sagan Center for Planetary Science

External links

•   Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wikipedia
•   Vandenberg Air Force Base - official website