Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 6
Encyclopedia
Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base
Vandenberg Air Force Base
Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....

 in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 is a launch pad and support area. It was originally designed for the launching of the Titan III
Titan III
The Titan IIIC was a space booster used by the United States Air Force. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. It was planned to be used as a launch vehicle in the cancelled Dyna-Soar and Manned Orbiting Laboratory programs...

 in support of the cancelled Manned Orbiting Laboratory
Manned Orbiting Laboratory
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory , originally referred to as the Manned Orbital Laboratory, was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane project...

, and was later rebuilt for the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

, which also never used it due to budget, safety and political considerations. It was subsequently used briefly by Athena rockets, before being remodified to support the Delta IV
Delta IV rocket
Delta IV is an active expendable launch system in the Delta rocket family. Delta IV uses rockets designed by Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems division and built in the United Launch Alliance facility in Decatur, Alabama. Final assembly is completed at the launch site by ULA...

 family of unmanned launchers, which have used the pad since 2006. Launches from SLC-6 fly southward into a polar orbit
Polar orbit
A polar orbit is an orbit in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited on each revolution. It therefore has an inclination of 90 degrees to the equator...

, not eastward as is typical of launches from Florida
Cape Canaveral
Cape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River.It is part of a region known as the...

.

Since polar orbits can allow full global coverage on a regular basis, they are often used for earth-mapping, earth observation
Earth observation satellite
Earth observation satellites are satellites specifically designed to observe Earth from orbit, similar to reconnaissance satellites but intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc....

 and reconnaissance satellites, as well as some weather satellite
Weather satellite
The weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...

s. However, polar orbits require more energy than a typical eastward launch, as they do not benefit from the earth's rotational speed of over 850 miles per hour (380 m/s) at this latitude. Achieving a polar orbit from a Florida launch site is possible, but because Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...

 has major population centers to both the North and South, polar orbit flights would require hugely inefficient maneuvers to avoid them, reducing payload capacity by 30% due to the extra fuel required to reach orbit.

History

SLC-6, part of Vandenberg's "South Base," was originally part of the Sudden Ranch, prior to its purchase by the U.S. Air Force in the mid-1960s under the law of eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...

. In addition to the ranch, the Point Arguello
Point Arguello Light
Point Arguello Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Point Arguello, serving the Santa Barbara Channel, California adjoining Vandenberg Air Force Base near the city of Lompoc, California....

 lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 was based there, which has since then been replaced by an off-shore LORAN
LORAN
LORAN is a terrestrial radio navigation system using low frequency radio transmitters in multiple deployment to determine the location and speed of the receiver....

 tracker. With the purchase of the base, the Air Force started construction of the SLC-6 facility on March 12, 1966 to support launches of a modified Titan III
Titan III
The Titan IIIC was a space booster used by the United States Air Force. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. It was planned to be used as a launch vehicle in the cancelled Dyna-Soar and Manned Orbiting Laboratory programs...

 for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory
Manned Orbiting Laboratory
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory , originally referred to as the Manned Orbital Laboratory, was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane project...

 (MOL). After significant construction work was completed, the MOL program was cancelled on June 10, 1969, so further work on SLC-6 stopped as the facility was placed in mothball status.
With plans of launching civilian and military equatorial space shuttle flights from Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...

 (KSC) and military polar orbit flights from Vandenberg, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 and the Air Force looked at different sites for launching the shuttle, finally deciding upon SLC-6, due to its dedicated manned spaceflight role that was leftover from the canceled MOL program.

In 1972, Vandenberg AFB was chosen as the western launch site for Air Force shuttle launches. Use of SLC-6 was approved in 1975, and re-construction of the former MOL launch facility occurred between January 1979 and July 1986 as SLC-6 was rebuilt to accommodate the space shuttle.

There were several reasons for using SLC-6:
  • Florida shuttle launches to polar orbit would have entailed a large payload penalty;
  • Florida shuttle launches to polar orbit would necessitate overflying South Carolina
    South Carolina
    South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

    , and the External Tank
    Space Shuttle external tank
    A Space Shuttle External Tank is the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contains the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplies the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to the three Space Shuttle Main Engines in the orbiter...

     would be jettisoned and overfly Canada
    Canada
    Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

     and Russia
    Russia
    Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

    , and
  • Use of the existing and partially constructed Titan III
    Titan III
    The Titan IIIC was a space booster used by the United States Air Force. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. It was planned to be used as a launch vehicle in the cancelled Dyna-Soar and Manned Orbiting Laboratory programs...

     facilities at SLC-6 would reduce building costs for the shuttle launch complex.


A Senate report summarized: "The Air Force originally justified the expenditure of such SLC-6 funding on the basis of a need to launch high-priority military payloads into polar orbits. After Defense Department officials testified that polar orbits could not be achieved by launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Congress initiated construction of [ . . . ] SLC-6."

There were significant layout differences between the shuttle launch complexes at KSC and SLC-6 at Vandenberg. KSC had the Orbiter Processing Facility
Orbiter Processing Facility
An Orbiter Processing Facility was one of three hangars where U.S. space shuttle orbiters underwent maintenance between flights. All three such facilities, OPF-1, OPF-2 and OPF-3, were located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at Launch Complex 39.They were located west of the Vehicle...

, Shuttle Runway facility, Mate-Demate Device
Mate-Demate Device
A Mate-Demate Device is a specialized crane designed to lift a Space Shuttle orbiter onto and off of the back of a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Three Mate-Demate Devices were built, all of different designs....

 (for loading the Orbiter on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft are two extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners that NASA uses to transport Space Shuttle orbiters...

), the Vehicle Assembly Building
Vehicle Assembly Building
The Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center was used to assemble and house American manned launch vehicles from 1968-2011. It is the fourth largest building in the world by volume...

, and Launch Complex 39. SLC-6 consolidated the VAB (stacking) and LC-39 (launching) functions, while a processing facility, located at North Base, handled the vehicle processing, along with providing a Mate-Demate Device, and a 13000 ft (3,962.4 m) runway for Shuttle landings.

Space Shuttle

Over $4 billion were spent on the new space shuttle modifications. The original Mobile Service Tower (MST) was lowered in height and two new flame ducts were added for the shuttle's Solid Rocket Booster
Solid rocket booster
Solid rocket boosters or Solid Rocket Motors, SRM, are used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from the launchpad up to burnout of the SRBs. Many launch vehicles include SRBs, including the Ariane 5, Atlas V , and the NASA Space Shuttle...

s. Additional modifications or improvements included liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen storage tanks, a payload preparation room, payload changeout room, a new launch tower with escape system for the shuttle crewmembers, sound suppression system and water reclamation area and a Shuttle Assembly Building were added to the original complex.

Additionally, the existing 5500 feet (1,676.4 m) runway and overruns on the North Base flightline were lengthened to nearly three miles (15,000 ft) to accommodate end-of-mission landings. Turn-around servicing and refurbishing of the orbiter would be accomplished in the adjacent Orbiter Maintenance and Processing Facility (OMPF).

SLC-6 was declared operational during acceptance ceremonies held on October 15, 1985. However, much additional work and testing was still required. Enterprise
Space Shuttle Enterprise
The Space Shuttle Enterprise was the first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight...

 was used for a series of fit checks like those conducted at LC-39 in 1980.

The inaugural polar-orbit flight, designated STS-62-A
STS-62-A
STS-62-A was a planned Space Shuttle mission to deliver a reconnaissance payload into polar orbit. It was expected to use Discovery. It would have been the first manned launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California...

, and using Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States, and was operational from its maiden flight, STS-41-D on August 30, 1984, until its final landing during STS-133 on March 9, 2011...

 with Shuttle veteran Robert Crippen
Robert Crippen
Robert Laurel Crippen is an engineer, retired United States Navy Captain and a former NASA astronaut. He flew on four Space Shuttle missions, including three as commander...

 as commander, was planned for October 15, 1986. However, the Challenger Disaster of January 28, 1986 grounded the Shuttle fleet as efforts were concentrated on recovery and returning the program to flight after a two year hiatus.

On July 31, 1986 Secretary of the Air Force Edward C. Aldridge Jr.
Edward C. Aldridge Jr.
Edward "Pete" Cleveland Aldridge Jr. has served in many top U.S. Defense Department and defense industry jobs, including as Under Secretary of the Air Force from 1981–1986, Director of the National Reconnaissance Office 1981-1988, and as the Secretary of the Air Force from 1986-1988...

, announced that Vandenberg's space shuttle program would be placed in "operational caretaker status," six months after the space shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia having been the first. The shuttle was built by Rockwell International's Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey, California...

 accident. A few months later, however, SLC-6 was placed in "minimum caretaker status" on February 20, 1987.

Eventually, on May 13, 1988, Secretary Aldridge then directed the Air Force to transfer space shuttle assets at Vandenberg to other organizations (specifically, the Kennedy Space Center) by September 30, 1989, the end of the fiscal year. The work was completed 10 days early on September 20, 1989 when SLC-6 was placed in mothball status.

Several factors accounted for this:
  • The Challenger disaster highlighted that sole dependency on the shuttle was unwise;
  • SLC-6 would have generated more contaminated waste water than originally envisioned, necessitating an expensive treatment plant;
  • Further study showed more sound suppression water would have been needed, requiring upgraded water supply facilities;
  • Vehicle icing would have been more problematic than in Florida, and it was unclear how well SLC-6 facilities would handle that;
  • Blast protection of nearby occupied buildings was unsatisfactory and more construction would have been required to safeguard them;
  • Post-Challenger, the more confined SLC-6 launch area raised concerns of entrapped gaseous hydrogen causing a fire or explosion;
  • Large construction cost overruns, and
  • Independent audits found significant construction quality problems which would have been expensive to fix.


The Air Force officially terminated the space shuttle program at Vandenberg on December 26, 1989. The estimated cost for the failed program was $4 billion.

Just six months later on July 6, 1990, Lockheed Space Operations Company (LSOC) was awarded an Air Force ground system contract to modify SLC-6 into a Titan IV
Titan IV
The Titan IV family of space boosters were used by the U.S. Air Force. They were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. At the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the "largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force."The...

/Centaur
Centaur (rocket stage)
Centaur is a rocket stage designed for use as the upper stage of space launch vehicles. Centaur boosts its satellite payload to geosynchronous orbit or, in the case of an interplanetary space probe, to or near to escape velocity...

 launch complex — essentially an uprated facility from the original MOL program that would have launched a Titan III vehicle. Site work was scheduled to begin in late-FY1992, and lead to an initial launch capability sometime in FY1996.

However, on March 22, 1991, HQ USAF reversed itself again by announcing the termination of the Titan IV/Centaur program at SLC-6. The reasons given for the project being canceled was due to "insufficient Titan IV launch requirements from the West Coast to support the construction of a new launch pad.". The contract with LSOC was closed out several months later.

Reactivation

Since the shutdown of SLC-6 for the shuttle program, the U.S. Air Force reverted to flying military polar orbit satellites using the Titan 34D
Titan 34D
The Titan 34D was an American rocket, used to launch a number of satellites for mostly military applications. After its retirement from military service, a small number were converted to the Commercial Titan III configuration, which included a stretched second stage, and a larger fairing...

 and later Titan IV
Titan IV
The Titan IV family of space boosters were used by the U.S. Air Force. They were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. At the time of its introduction, the Titan IV was the "largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force."The...

 rockets.

Nevertheless, the utilization of SLC-6 was far from over. In the early 1990s, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company was a unit of the Lockheed Corporation "Missiles, Space, and Electronics Systems Group." LMSC was started by Willis Hawkins who served as its president...

 began studies on the prospect of a new family of small launch vehicles for commercial and other users. Lockheed eventually approved the development of the Lockheed Launch Vehicle (LLV) program in January 1993. After the merger of Lockheed with Martin Marietta
Martin Marietta
Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of The Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. The combined company became a leader in chemicals, aerospace, and electronics. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. The...

, the renamed Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle (LMLV) eventually would take on the moniker of Athena.

After another contract was issued in 1994 by the Air Force, modification work began on the existing SLC-6 shuttle launch mount for a small "milkstool" platform to be located over one of the two exhaust ducts originally intended for one of the large solid rocket boosters. The first operational launch from SLC-6 occurred on August 15, 1995 involving the Lockheed-Martin Launch Vehicle I (LMLV-1). Unfortunately, LMLV-1 was terminated in mid-flight after uncontrolled oscillations of the rocket were detected. This resulted in the loss of the vehicle and the payload. The cause of the mishap was later determined to be a guidance system failure coupled with overheating of the booster's first stage steering mechanism. The payload on board was GEMstar 1, a small communications satellite manufactured by CTA, Inc. for the Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), a non-profit organization.

After some hardware redesign and testing, a newly rechristened Athena I successfully launched NASA's Lewis
Lewis (satellite)
Lewis was an American satellite which was to have been operated by NASA as part of the Small Satellite Technology Initiative. It carried two experimental Earth imaging instruments, and an ultraviolet astronomy payload...

 satellite into orbit from SLC-6 on August 22, 1997. Part of NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI) and "Mission to Planet Earth" program, the $64.8 million satellite carried instruments to monitor pollution, the state of endangered-species habitats, soil resources, and the environmental impacts of energy pipelines. Designed to last three years, Lewis' thrusters misfired just four days after launch and went into a slow spin, its solar arrays unable to collect enough energy from the sun to charge its batteries. Within a month, it destroyed itself upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
Another launch, on September 24, 1999 was successful as an Ikonos
IKONOS
IKONOS is a commercial earth observation satellite, and was the first to collect publicly available high-resolution imagery at 1- and 4-meter resolution. It offers multispectral and panchromatic imagery. The IKONOS launch was called by John E. Pike “one of the most significant developments in...

satellite operated by Space Imaging
Space Imaging
Space Imaging commonly refers to:* Astronomical image processing of objects usually beyond the Solar System* Images taken by Earth satellites* Images processed that are produced from the Exploration of Mars* Images produced by any Unmanned space mission...

 (later acquired by ORBIMAGE to form GeoEye
GeoEye
GeoEye Inc. is a commercial satellite imagery company based in Herndon, Virginia that is the world's largest space imaging corporation....

) was successfully placed into a polar orbit using an Athena 2 booster.

However, with the advent of the Delta IV rocket
Delta IV rocket
Delta IV is an active expendable launch system in the Delta rocket family. Delta IV uses rockets designed by Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems division and built in the United Launch Alliance facility in Decatur, Alabama. Final assembly is completed at the launch site by ULA...

 and Atlas V
Atlas V
Atlas V is an active expendable launch system in the Atlas rocket family. Atlas V was formerly operated by Lockheed Martin, and is now operated by the Lockheed Martin-Boeing joint venture United Launch Alliance...

 launch vehicles in the late 1990s, The Boeing Company
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

 received a lease from the Air Force on September 1, 1999 to modify SLC-6 once again to launch Boeing's Delta IV.

Some of the Shuttle-specific components at SLC-6 were removed, such as the mobile Payload Changeout Room, but the Assembly Building, Mobile Service Tower, Launch Tower, flame deflection trenches and sound suppression system and some other shuttle-oriented equipment were retained and made compatible for the new Delta IV rocket. The launch vehicle's Common Booster Core
Common Booster Core
The Common Booster Core is an American rocket stage, which is used on the Delta IV rocket as part of a modular rocket system. Delta IV rockets flying in the Medium and Medium+ configurations each use a single Common Booster Core as their first stage, whilst the Heavy configuration uses three; one...

 and associated flight hardware is transported from the Boeing factory in Decatur
Decatur, Alabama
Decatur is a city in Limestone and Morgan Counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. The city, affectionately known as "The River City", is located in Northern Alabama on the banks of Wheeler Lake, along the Tennessee River. It is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County...

, Ala.
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, to Vandenberg via the cargo vessel that docks just south of SLC-6 at the same location originally constructed for receiving and offloading space shuttle external tanks.

Delta IV

Boeing developed the Delta IV class of vehicles as its entrant in the Department of Defense's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The main objective of EELV is aimed at cutting launch costs and simplifying the process of getting satellites into space. Boeing's main competitor, Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....

, has a similar class of vehicles known as the Atlas V
Atlas V
Atlas V is an active expendable launch system in the Atlas rocket family. Atlas V was formerly operated by Lockheed Martin, and is now operated by the Lockheed Martin-Boeing joint venture United Launch Alliance...

 that made its West Coast debut in early March 2008, flying from the modified Space Launch Complex-3
Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3
Space Launch Complex 3 is a launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base that has been used by Atlas and Thor rockets. It was built in the early 1960s and consists of two pads, SLC-3E and SLC-3W . The East-West coastline at Vandenberg allows SLC-3 to launch over-ocean polar trajectories that avoid...

 East on South Base.

After sitting on the pad since late-2003 and enduring technical issues with both the booster and the payload, the first of the Delta IV launch vehicles to fly from SLC-6 successfully lifted off at 8:33 p.m. PDT on June 27, 2006.

The Delta IV Medium+ (4,2) rocket lofted NROL-22, a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office
National Reconnaissance Office
The National Reconnaissance Office , located in Chantilly, Virginia, is one of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. It designs, builds, and operates the spy satellites of the United States government.-Mission:...

, into orbit. The payload was successfully deployed approximately 54 minutes later.
According to a post-launch Boeing News press release, the mission was the first for the NRO aboard a Delta IV and the second aboard a Delta rocket. The first was the GeoLITE mission in 2001 aboard a Delta II.

Another Delta IV Medium vehicle flew a mission for the Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program monitors meteorological, oceanographic, and solar-terrestrial physics for the United States Department of Defense. The program is now run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The mission of the satellites was revealed in March 1973...

, orbiting DMSP-17, on November 4, 2006.

On January 20, 2011, at 1:10 p.m. PST, USA-224
USA-224
USA-224, also known as NRO Launch 49 , is an American reconnaissance satellite which was launched in 2011. It is a KH-11 optical imaging satellite, the fifteenth such spacecraft to be launched, and intended as a replacement of the USA-161 satellite launched in 2001.After the failure of the Boeing...

 (NROL-49) was launched atop a Delta IV Heavy
Delta IV Heavy
The Delta IV Heavy is expendable rocket, the largest type of the Delta IV family.It is similar to the Medium+ , except that it uses two additional CBCs instead of using GEMs. These are strap-on boosters which are separated earlier in the flight than the center CBC. The Delta IV Heavy also features...

 rocket. The launch was conducted by United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. U.S...

and was the first flight of a Delta IV Heavy from Vandenberg.

External links

  • Location: 34°34′53"N 120°37′35"W
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