X-Nico

8 unusual facts about Vandenberg Air Force Base


Camp Cooke

Vandenberg Air Force Base, a U.S. Air Force Base in California originally named Camp Cooke

Coronal loop

The Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) was launched in April 1998 from Vandenberg Air Force Base as part of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Small Explorer (SMEX) project.

GeoEye-1

It was rescheduled for launch August 22, 2008 from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Delta II launch vehicle.

MV Delta Mariner

Its primary role is transporting components for the Boeing Atlas V and Delta rockets from the manufacturer, located in Decatur, Alabama, to launch facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Norman Marous

Chief Marous currently serves on the Vandenberg Air Force Base Ceremonial Honor Guard, on the Board of the Air Force Historical Foundation, as Vice President of the Goddard Chapter of the Air Force Association, as Air Force Sergeants Association Division 13 First Trustee and as Director of the Joint Retired Member Center, serving all military components.

Philip St. George Cooke

It was deactivated from 1953 to 1957, at which time it was activated as Cooke Air Force Base (1957-1958) but was officially renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1958.

Range safety

Range safety at the Western Range (Vandenberg Air Force Base in California) is controlled using a somewhat similar set of graphics and display system.

STS-36

Although the maneuver resulted in a reduction of vehicle performance, it was the only way to reach the required deployment orbit from Kennedy Space Center (originally, the flight had been slated to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, until the shuttle launch facilities there were mothballed in 1989).


AN/FPS-129

One radar of this type was previously deployed in Vandenberg Air Force Base, California and has been moved to the Globus II station in Vardø, Norway.

USA-225

A Minotaur I carrier rocket was used to launch USA-225, flying from Space Launch Complex 8 of the Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 4

Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4) is a launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, with two pads one of which is currently used by SpaceX to launch the Falcon 9 rocket.

X-ray astronomy satellites

The Global Geospace Science (GGS) Polar Satellite was a NASA science spacecraft launched at 06:23:59.997 EST on February 24, 1996 aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7925-10 rocket from launch pad 2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California, to observe the Earth's polar magnetosphere.


see also

Pacific Missile Range

The Western Range, a currently active missile range supporting launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base and elsewhere

SLC-2

Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 2 - a rocket launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base