Vandenberg Space Force Base


Vandenberg Space Force Base, previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from the Western Range, and also performs missile testing. The United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 30 serves as the host delta for the base, equivalent to an Air Force air base wing. In addition to its military space launch mission, Vandenberg Space Force Base also hosts space launches for civil and commercial space entities, such as NASA and SpaceX.

History

United States Army

Camp Cooke (1941–1953)

In 1941, just before the United States entered World War II, the United States Army embarked on an initiative to acquire lands in the United States to be used to train infantry and armored forces. These areas needed to be of a varied nature to ensure relevant training. In March 1941, the Army identified approximately of open ranch lands along the Central Coast of California between Lompoc and Santa Maria. With its flat plateau, surrounding hills, numerous canyons, and relative remoteness from populated areas, the Army was convinced this portion of the Gaviota Coast was an ideal training location. The government purchased most of the land, however, some smaller parcels were obtained either by lease, license, or as easements. The land was previously part of six ranchos: Casmalia, Guadalupe, Mission de la Purisima, Rancho Lompoc and Rancho Todos Santos y San Antonio, and Jesús María.
Construction of the Army camp began in September 1941. Although unfinished, the camp was activated on the 5th of October and was named Camp Cooke in honor of Phillip St. George Cooke, a cavalry officer with a distinguished career spanning the Mexican War, Indian Wars, the Civil War.
Troop training didn't wait for construction to finish. The 5th Armored Division was the first to arrive in February and March 1942. Throughout the war, Camp Cooke served as a training ground for numerous armored and infantry divisions before their deployment overseas. Additionally, anti-aircraft artillery, combat engineer, ordnance, and hospital units trained at Cooke. In total, over 400 groups passed through the camp.
As the war progressed, Camp Cooke was used to house German and Italian prisoners of war. Following the Geneva Convention, the groups were kept separate and assigned various jobs within the camp, including construction, clerical work, food service, and laundry. To address wartime labor shortages, German prisoners also participated in agricultural work in nearby communities.
After the war's conclusion in 1946, Camp Cooke became home to a maximum-security military prison, while most of the land was largely leased for agriculture and grazing. From 1950 to 1953, Camp Cooke served again as a training ground for units heading to the Korean War. In 1953, the camp was inactivated, and the military prison became a federal prison for civilians, now known as the United States Penitentiary, Lompoc.
The final remaining buildings from Camp Cooke were demolished in 2010.

Known United States Army Units at Camp Cooke

World War II
Korean War

Cooke Air Force Base

As the 1950s ushered in the age of missiles, and the United States urgently needed a training ground that could also serve as an initial combat ready missile base. In 1956, after examining over 200 potential locations, a committee selected Camp Cooke. Similar to its appeal in 1941 for the Army, Camp Cooke's vast size, remoteness, moderate climate, and coastal location made it ideal. Missiles could be launched westward over the Pacific Ocean without flying over populated areas, and satellites could be placed into polar orbit towards the South Pole without traversing any landmass until reaching Antarctica.
Following the committee's recommendation, on 16 November 1956, the Secretary of Defense directed the Army to transfer to the United States Air Force. This land was initially called North Camp Cooke, but when the official transfer happened on 21 June 1957 it was named Cooke Air Force Base.
The first airmen of the 6591st Support Squadron arrived on 15 February, before the official transfer, and found the base in rough shape. World War II-era buildings were dilapidated, and roads needed extensive repair. Over the next two years, launch and control facilities emerged, old structures were renovated, and new housing was built. The initial mission of the base was to train personnel on the PGM-17 Thor, SM-65 Atlas, and HGM-25A Titan I missiles, while also serving as an emergency operational facility for the Atlas.
The 1957 launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union intensified the urgency of the U.S. missile program. In November, the Department of Defense authorized ballistic missile launches from Cooke AFB. Management responsibility shifted from the Air Research and Development Command to the Strategic Air Command in January 1958. SAC assumed responsibility for training missile launch crews and achieving initial operational capability. ARDC retained oversight of site activation, research, and development testing. This began a close working relationship between the two commands that would last 35 years.
In February 1958, the PGM-19 Jupiter program was transferred from the Army to the Air Force. SAC established squadrons for both the Jupiter and Atlas missiles at Cooke. Construction also began on the Operational System Test Facility for the Titan I. The first Thor missile arrived later that year.
The southern of Cooke AFB was transferred to the Navy in May 1958 for their Pacific Missile Range. However, in 1963, a restructuring returned major sections of this range, including Point Arguello, to the Air Force. This move gave the Air Force full responsibility for missile range safety at Vandenberg and much of the Pacific Ocean. The Air Force renamed the area the Western Range.

Vandenberg Air Force Base

The facility was renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base on 4 October 1958 in honor of General Hoyt Vandenberg, the Air Force's second Chief of Staff.
The final acquisition of of land for the base occurred in 1966 to accommodate the construction of Space Launch Complex 6 for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. With the annexation, the base reached its final size,.
Ballistic missile testing
PGM-17 Thor
The transition from U.S. Army camp to missile base solidified on 15 December 1958 when Vandenberg AFB successfully launched its first missile, a PGM-17 Thor IRBM. The launch from Vandenberg inaugurated the intermediate-range ballistic missile portion of the Pacific Missile Range and was fired by a crew from the 1st Missile Division. The first successful launch of a Thor IRBM by a Royal Air Force crew took place at Vandenberg AFB on 16 April 1959. The launch was part of integrated weapon system training. In October 1959, the first combat training launch of a Thor IRBM by a Royal Air Force crew was successful.
On 22 April 1960, the fourth and final British-based Thor IRBM squadron was turned over to the Royal Air Force by the Strategic Air Command, thus completing the deployment of this weapon system in the United Kingdom. The next month, the first missile to be removed from an operational unit and sent to Vandenberg AFB for confidence firing arrived from a Thor IRBM squadron in the United Kingdom. Confidence firing was the predecessor of SAC's operational test program.
SM-65 Atlas
On 16 October 1958, the first Atlas ICBM launcher constructed at Vandenberg AFB, California, was accepted from the contractor by the 1st Missile Division. The first intercontinental ballistic missile, the SM-65D Atlas ICBM, was delivered and was accepted by SAC's 576th Strategic Missile Squadron on 18 February 1959. The first Atlas-D flew on 9 September 1959, and following the successful launch, General Thomas S. Power, CINCSAC, declared the Atlas ICBM to be operational. The following month, equipped with a nuclear warhead, the Atlas at Vandenberg became the first ICBM to be placed on alert in the United States. It was an SM-69D Atlas ICBM on launcher 576A-1. In April 1960, the first attempted launch of a Series D Atlas ICBM from a coffin-type launcher was successful. This launcher was the prototype of the ones to be used at the first operational Atlas squadron, the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron, Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. Following this successful launch, Major General David Wade, Commander of the 1st Missile Division, declared the coffin-type launcher to be operational.
In July 1959, construction began on the first Series E Atlas ICBM coffin-type launcher. On 28 February 1962, the first successful launch of the SM-65E Atlas took place. Construction began on the first SM-65F Atlas ICBM "silo-lift" launcher in November 1962. The first Atlas F arrived in June 1961 and the first operationally configured Series F Atlas was successfully launched on 1 August 1962.
During its testing phase, Vandenberg would operate two Atlas-D launch complexes; two Atlas-E, and three Atlas-F silos. The Atlas-Ds were taken off alert at the 576th Strategic Missile Squadron in May 1964 as part of the phaseout of the Atlas from active ICBM service. The last Atlas F test launch was on 18 January 1965, and the 576th Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated on 2 April 1966. The 576th SMS carried out 53 Atlas-D, 7 Atlas-E and 7 Atlas-F test launches between 1959 and 1965.
The Atlas would remain in use as a launch vehicle for satellites from Vandenberg as a space booster configured with an RM-81 Agena upper-stage rocket and the Atlas-Agena would launch many different types of satellites into orbit until its phaseout in the late 1980s.