Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6


Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is a launch pad and support area. The site was originally developed for the Titan III and MOL, which was cancelled before construction of SLC-6 was complete. The complex was later rebuilt to serve as the west coast launch site for the Space Shuttle, but went unused due to budget, safety and political considerations. The pad was subsequently used for several Athena launches before being modified to support the Delta IV launch vehicle family, which have used the pad since 2006.
Launches from Vandenberg fly southward, allowing payloads to be placed in high-inclination orbits such as polar or Sun-synchronous orbit, which allow full global coverage on a regular basis and are often used for weather, Earth observation, and reconnaissance satellites. These orbits are difficult to reach from Cape Canaveral, where launches must fly eastward due to major population centers to both the north and south of Kennedy Space Center. Avoiding these would require hugely inefficient maneuvering, greatly reducing payload capacity.

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. In addition to the ranch, the Point Arguello lighthouse was based there, which has since then been replaced by an off-shore LORAN tracker.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 for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. 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 and military polar orbit flights from Vandenberg, NASA and the Air Force looked at different sites for launching the shuttle, finally deciding upon SLC-6, due to its dedicated crewed spaceflight role that was left over 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:
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, Shuttle Runway facility, Mate-Demate Device, the Vehicle Assembly Building, and Launch Complex 39. SLC-6 consolidated the VAB and LC-39 functions, while a processing facility, located at North Base, would have handled the vehicle processing, along with providing a Mate-Demate Device, and a runway for Shuttle landings.

Space Shuttle

Over $4 billion were spent on the new Space Shuttle modifications. The original Mobile Service Tower was lowered in height and two new flame ducts were added for the shuttle's solid rocket boosters. 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 crew members, sound suppression system and water reclamation area and a Shuttle Assembly Building were added to the original complex.
Additionally, the existing runway and overruns on the North Base flightline were lengthened to nearly three miles 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.
SLC-6 was declared operational during acceptance ceremonies held on October 15, 1985. However, much additional work and testing was still required. Use of the prototype orbiter Enterprise was obtained, in order that she could be mated with External Tank and SRBs in boilerplate configuration, and used for a series of fit checks like those conducted at LC-39.
The inaugural polar-orbit flight, designated STS-62-A and using Discovery with Shuttle veteran Robert Crippen as commander, was planned for 15 October 1986. However, the Challenger Disaster of 28 January 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., announced that Vandenberg's Space Shuttle program would be placed in "operational caretaker status", six months after the Space Shuttle Challenger 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 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 Air Force officially terminated the Space Shuttle program at Vandenberg on December 26, 1989. The estimated cost for the discontinued program was $4 billion.
Six months later on July 6, 1990, Lockheed Space Operations Company was awarded an Air Force ground system contract to modify SLC-6 into a Titan IV/Centaur 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-FY 1992, 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 and later Titan IV rockets.
Nevertheless, the utilization of SLC-6 was far from over. In the early 1990s, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company 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 program in January 1993. After the merger of Lockheed with Martin Marietta, the renamed Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle 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. 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, a non-profit organization.
After some hardware redesign and testing, a newly rechristened Athena I successfully launched NASA's Lewis satellite into orbit from SLC-6 on August 22, 1997. Part of NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative and "Mission to Planet Earth" program.
Another launch, on September 24, 1999 was successful as an Ikonos satellite operated by Space Imaging was successfully placed into a polar orbit using an Athena 2 booster.
However, with the advent of the Delta IV rocket and Atlas V launch vehicles in the late 1990s, The Boeing Company 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 and associated flight hardware is transported from the Boeing factory in Decatur, Ala., 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 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, has a similar class of vehicles known as the Atlas V that made its West Coast debut in early March 2008, flying from the modified Space Launch Complex-3 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 27 June 2006.
The Delta IV Medium+ rocket lofted NROL-22, a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, 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, orbiting DMSP-17, on 4 November 2006.
On 20 January 2011, at 1:10 p.m. PST, USA-224 was launched atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. The launch was conducted by United Launch Alliance and was the first flight of a Delta IV Heavy from Vandenberg.

Launch history

No.Date/Time
TypeSerial-no.PayloadType of payloadOrbitOutcomeRemarks
11995-08-15 22:30Athena IDLVGemStar 1CommunicationsLEOFirst launch from SLC-6
21997-08-23 06:51:01Athena ILM-002LewisScienceLEO
31999-04-27 18:22:01Athena IILM-005IKONOS 1ImagingLEOPayload fairing failed to separate and satellite did not achieve orbit
41999-09-24 18:21:08Athena IILM-007IKONOS 2Earth observationLEO
52006-06-28 03:33Delta IV Medium+ 317USA-184 ELINTMolniyaFirst Delta IV launch from Vandenberg
62006-11-04 13:53Delta IV Medium320USA-192 WeatherSSOFirst Delta IV launch into a LEO/SSO
72011-01-20 21:10Delta IV Heavy352USA-224 Optical imagingLEOFirst Delta IV Heavy launch from Vandenberg
82012-04-02 23:04Delta IV Medium+ 359USA-234 Radar imagingLEOFirst Delta IV Medium+ launch
92013-08-28 18:03Delta IV Heavy364USA-245 Reconnaissance satelliteLEO
102016-02-10 11:40Delta IV Medium+ 373USA-267 Radar imagingLEO
112018-01-12 22:11Delta IV Medium+ 379NROL-47ReconnaissanceLEOFinal flight of Delta IV Medium+
122019-01-19 11:10Delta IV HeavyNROL-71ReconnaissanceLEO