* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Vandenberg Air Force Base

Blobrana · L

SpaceX breaks ground for Vandenberg AFB launchpad

Launch vehicle company Space Exploration Technologies on Wednesday broke ground for its new launchpad at Vendenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc.
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Blobrana · L

Vandenberg Air Force Base: The West Coast counterpart to Cape Canaveral

Once cattle grazed here.
Today it is the home of some of the most sophisticated technology in the world.
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Americas Western Spaceport, occupies 99,000 acres in western Santa Barbara County, stretching for more than 30 miles from near Guadalupe to north of Point Conception.
The West Coast counterpart to Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg has unofficially recorded 1,908 launches through early March, starting with a Thor ballistic missile in December 1958.
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Blobrana · L

New Delta IV Heavy Launch Site Ready For Use

A single, classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office is the only pending business here for the Delta IV Heavy launcher, but United Launch Alliance undertook a three-year, $58-million modification of the storied Space Launch Complex-6 to make it possible.
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Blobrana · L

VAFB gets ready for Heavy duty

Space Launch Complex-6, a pad with a huge history at Vandenberg Air Force Base, now has a monstrous resident to match its behemoth background.
The site of two cancelled manned flight programs is now housing the Delta 4-Heavy rocket after another round of modifications to the storied facility.
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Blobrana · L

Vandenberg is currently undergoing the planning stages of removing and disassembling pieces from one of its historical launch pads, Space Launch Complex-5.
The reason behind modifying the vacant complex came about when Vandenberg began receiving numerous requests from different agencies, programs and personnel around the globe for unused SLC-5 parts.

Source

Blobrana · L

This isn't your grandfather's Atlas rocket, with a dime-thin shell created to fight the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.
In fact, this 21st century Atlas rocket uses a Russian-made engine.
Times have changed, not only for the Atlas rocket program but for Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex-3 (SLC-3), which has been remodelled yet again to handle the newest Atlas booster.
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Blobrana · L

Rocket launch Vandenberg

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Blobrana · L

Construction on Space Launch Complex 6 at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, began on March 12, 1966. The site was originally intended for the Titan III launch vehicle, and was to be part of the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory, or MOL, program -- a plan to put military astronauts in orbit to keep an eye on the Soviet Union.

According to space historian Robert Ash, construction workers building the pad unearthed human remains from an ancient Chumash Indian burial ground. Members of the tribe asked the Air Force to study the area and move the remains to another location, but the military brass ignored the request and continued construction.

Naturally this angered the Chumash tribe, and, according to local legends, a tribe leader put a curse on the site.

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(Ed - this story is fabricated)

-- Edited by Blobrana at 20:55, 2006-11-01

Blobrana · L

Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States military installation with a spaceport, in Santa Barbara County, California, United States.
It is home to the 30th Space Wing and the Western Launch and Test Range (WLTR), and is responsible for satellite launches for military and commercial organizations, as well as testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles, including the Minuteman III and Peacekeeper ICBMs.

(81kb, 800 x 607)
Latitude 34° 43' 46.8" N Longitude 120° 34' 36.6" W

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