What is the Vandenberg Space Force Base? 4 things to know about California rocket launches
When spaceflight enthusiasts think about catching a rocket launch, the first place to come to mind, more than likely, is Florida.
The Sunshine State is brimming with a near-constant schedule of crewed and uncrewed launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, both located on Florida's Space Coast. Catching the sight of a SpaceX or NASA vehicle getting off the ground has become so popular among tourists, that the U.S. space agency even sells tickets for spectators.
But all the way across the U.S. on the West Coast, plenty of spaceflights are launching from California. In Santa Barbara County, a military base regularly hosts rocket launches that span the civil and commercial arenas.
Rocket launches have become so well-known that spectators have established popular locations in both Southern California and neighboring Arizona to watch the spacecraft soar into orbit.
Here's everything to know about the Vandenberg Space Force Base, the only site for rocket launches in California.
California rocket launches: Here's a look at the upcoming schedule from Vandenberg
The Vandenberg Space Force Base is a rocket launch site in Santa Barbara County in Southern California.
Established in 1941, the site was previously known as the Vandenberg Air Force Base. Though it's a military base, the site also hosts both civil and commercial space launches for entities like NASA and SpaceX.
Space Launch Delta 30, a unit of the U.S. Space Force, is responsible for managing the launch operations at Vandenberg, as well as the missile tests that take place at the base.
Vandenberg hosts a regular cadence of weekly rocket launches, most from its Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E.)
In the month of May, a total of six launches got off the ground from Vandenberg, all of which were SpaceX missions to deploy Starlink internet satellites into orbit. This year, the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, gave SpaceX the greenlight to increase its Falcon 9 rocket launches from Vandenberg from 36 per year to 50.
But it's not just SpaceX that launches from Vandenberg.
In March, NASA contracted a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to boost both its SPHEREx space telescope and small sun-observing PUNCH satellites into orbit following a launch from the base.
And in late-April, Texas spaceflight company Firefly Aerospace attempted to launch prototype satellites into orbit for Lockheed Martin from the base.
SpaceX's Starlink missions have become by far the most frequent and common rocket launches from Southern California.
Two Starlink deployments have taken place so far in June, with a third and fourth on the way in less than a week.
The company's Famous two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, one of the world's most active, has become crucial in regularly deploying batches of the internet-beaming Starlink satellites into what's called low-Earth orbit – an altitude that allows for things like satellites to circle Earth fairly quickly.
Owned by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Starlink is a constellation of more than 7,000 satellites that provide internet service to customers around the world. SpaceX has spent more than six years delivering the satellites to orbit with a regular cadence of rocket launches from both Florida and California.
Following the delivery and deployment of the satellites from California, the Falcon 9 rocket's booster aims to land on a SpaceX drone ship, nicknamed "Of Course I Still Love You," in the Pacific Ocean. This allows for SpaceX personnel to recover the booster so it can be reused in future spaceflights.
Because Vandenberg is an active military base, the launch complex does not host public viewings of launches.
But if conditions are clear, rocket launches from the Vandenberg Space Force Base can be viewed from several locations as far as Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
The city of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County is filled with places to catch a rocket launch. The city's tourism bureau, Explore Lompoc, even maintains a list with suggested viewing locations.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Where are California rocket launches? What to know about Vandenberg
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