“We have been working closely with SMC on this issue,” said Hough. There are also safety concerns, he said, because much of the available land is near the town of Lompoc and residents there would feel shockwaves from rocket blasts. Hough said it would take at least two years to secure state permits for a space launch pad and although Vandenberg is a huge base, the land available to build a large pad is limited. The companies both received Launch Service Agreement contracts last year from the Air Force to help pay for new infrastructure but companies still would have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into facilities that would have limited use and hardly any commercial business. Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman are just starting to build their pads on the East Coast but have yet no capability yet to launch from Vandenberg.Įnsuring Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman have access to a launch pad at Vandenberg has become a headache of sorts for the Air Force and for both companies because of the enormous cost and regulatory obstacles in building new launch infrastructure at the base. Today only SpaceX and ULA meet that requirement. To win a Phase 2 contract, providers must have launch facilities on both coasts. The Air Force will select two providers next year from a field that includes Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX and ULA. Two potential new tenants are big rocket manufacturers Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman that are competing for a National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. “It was evident soon after I arrived here that we needed to be more supportive of commercial launch.” “I want people to come out here,” he said. Hough insists that Vandenberg could become more attractive to commercial companies as infrastructure is modernized and red tape reduced. “I don’t blame companies for wanting to do that, and consolidate operations on the East Coast.” Launch activity at Cape Canaveral on the Florida space coast is growing. “I think you’re going to see a day when they’re going to try hard to do it at the Cape,” he said. Nevertheless, launch providers remain ambivalent about investing in West Coast launch pads in the face of uncertain demand. Satellites fly south into polar orbit without flying over any land masses. Because of its location, intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched over water without endangering populated areas. “In order to achieve polar orbit there is no better place to be than Vandenberg,” Hough said. Range officials have been in discussions with small launch providers Relativity Space, Vector and Rocket Lab, although none has yet made any commitments. He touted the arrival last year of Firefly Aerospace, a small launch company that leased Space Launch Complex 2 West, which was previously used by ULA’s Delta 2. For now, Hough believes the void could be filled by the burgeoning small launch industry. ![]() Demand for polar orbits is just not that high,” he said during a recent meeting with government officials attended by a SpaceNews reporter.Īctivity might pick up in a few years when the next phase of the National Security Space Launch program ramps up. Michael Hough, commander of the Air Force 30th Space Wing and Western Range. Five of the eight launches projected for 2019 are intercontinental ballistic missile tests only three are satellite launches. SpaceX and United Launch Alliance are the primary tenants of the range supported by the 30th Space Wing, but their West Coast launches are now few and far between. Missions to polar orbits are not in high demand these days, and that has caused a slowdown in space launch activity at the 99,000-acre Western Range. OTV-2 blasted off aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on March 5, 2010.VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. The military will not disclose what OTV-2 was doing during its 15 months in orbit, but a third mission already is on the calendar for launch this fall. The former Soviet Union’s Buran space shuttle, which made a single spaceflight in 1988, was the first ship to make an autonomous landing from orbit. The military’s first X-37B debuted in 2010 and autonomously landed at Vandenberg after 224 days in space. ![]() We’re proud of the entire team’s successful efforts to bring this mission to an outstanding conclusion.” ![]() ![]() “The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs. “With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development,” said Lieutenant Colonel Tom McIntyre, X-37B program manager. vehicle to make an autonomous runway landing from space. The miniature space plane, also known as Orbital Test Vehicle-2, or OTV-2, touched down at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
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