There's extra to the adjustments at Vandenberg than launching extra rockets. The authorization provides SpaceX the inexperienced gentle to redevelop House Launch Complicated 6 (SLC-6) to help Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions. SpaceX plans to demolish unneeded constructions at SLC-6 (pronounced “Slick 6”) and assemble two new touchdown pads for Falcon boosters on a bluff overlooking the Pacific simply south of the pad.
SpaceX at present operates from a single pad at Vandenberg—House Launch Complicated 4-East (SLC-4E)—a number of miles north of the SLC-6 location. The SLC-4E location just isn't configured to launch the Falcon Heavy, an uprated rocket with three Falcon 9 boosters bolted collectively.
SLC-6, cocooned by hills on three sides and flanked by the ocean to the west, is not any stranger to huge rockets. It was first developed for the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program within the Nineteen Sixties, when the navy needed to place a mini-space station into orbit for astronauts to spy on the Soviet Union. Crews readied the complicated to launch navy astronauts on high of Titan rockets, however the Pentagon canceled this system in 1969 earlier than something really launched from SLC-6.
NASA and the Air Drive then modified SLC-6 to launch house shuttles. The house shuttle Enterprise was stacked vertically at SLC-6 for match checks in 1985, however the Air Drive deserted the Vandenberg-based shuttle program after the Challenger accident in 1986. The launch facility sat largely dormant for almost 20 years till Boeing, after which United Launch Alliance, took over SLC-6 and started launching Delta IV rockets there in 2006.
The house shuttle Enterprise stands vertically at House Launch Complicated-6 at Vandenberg. NASA used the shuttle for match checks on the pad, but it surely by no means launched from California.
Credit score:
NASA
ULA launched its final Delta IV Heavy rocket from California in 2022, leaving the way forward for SLC-6 in query. ULA's new rocket, the Vulcan, will launch from a distinct pad at Vandenberg. House Drive officers chosen SpaceX in 2023 to take over the pad and put together it to launch the Falcon Heavy, which has the elevate capability to hold the navy's most huge satellites into orbit.
No huge rush
Progress at SLC-6 has been gradual. It took almost a yr to organize the Environmental Influence Assertion. In actuality, there isn't any huge rush to carry SLC-6 on-line. SpaceX has no Falcon Heavy missions from Vandenberg in its contract backlog, however the firm is a part of the Pentagon's steady of launch suppliers. To qualify as a member of the membership, SpaceX will need to have the aptitude to launch the House Drive's heaviest missions from the navy's spaceports at Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral, Florida.
