Now Vandenberg is aiming higher with its Spaceport of the Future initiative. The agency is making plans for a nearly $900-million makeover of the aging base with roads, buildings, launchpads and other facilities to handle an anticipated surge in launches. <\/p>\n
Seventy-one rockets blasted off last year, most of them by SpaceX. One hundred or more could take off this year, possibly making it the busiest space port in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in the beginnings of the second space race. That\u2019s what you\u2019re seeing,\u201d said U.S. Space Force Col. James Horne III, base commander, whose office is decorated with nearly two dozen models of rockets flown from Vandenberg.<\/p>\n
Not everyone is happy about the base\u2019s big plans.<\/p>\n
While local development officials are eager to capitalize on the expansion, the blasts from the takeoffs and subsequent sonic booms experienced south of the base have stirred up controversy<\/a> \u2014 scaring wildlife, rattling nerves and sparking conflicts with environmentalists, state officials and residents for whom the first space race is a distant memory.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I am upstairs and my door is slightly cracked, the boom can slam my door and we are 100-plus miles away,\u201d said Mikayla Shocks, a Camarillo homeowner. \u201cOne time I thought a car hit the house, because it\u2019s that loud.\u201d <\/p>\n A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Starlink satellite launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Jan. 25. The mission marked the fifth launch from the base this month.<\/p>\n (2nd Lt. Andrew Taller\/U.S. Space Force)<\/p>\n The community pushback has grown as the number of launches has steadily increased from just seven in 2021, with SpaceX accounting for the vast majority of additional flights. <\/p>\n SpaceX has been blasting its reliable workhorse Falcon 9 rocket<\/a> off from its complex on the southern part of the base, and received approval to launch its bigger Falcon Heavy<\/a> rockets from another pad nearby.<\/p>\n The Falcon Heavy straps three Falcon 9 rocket cores together and has 27 liftoff engines compared to nine for the smaller rocket.<\/p>\n More concerning to critics is a decision by the Space Force in December to invite rocket companies<\/a> to build and operate a \u201csuper heavy\u201d launch pad on the base. <\/p>\n Marco Caceres, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group, expects SpaceX will have interest in using the pad to launch Starship, which is the largest rocket ever built<\/a> and is being tested in Texas. <\/p>\n A version of the rocket is expected to be used by NASA to land Americans back on the moon, while SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars with it. But he also has talked about how it will launch next-generation Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n The company, which moved to Texas<\/a> but maintains large operations in Hawthorne, did not return messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n The southern coastline of Vandenberg Space Force Base.<\/p>\n (Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The surge in demand for rocket launches at Vandenberg has been fueled by big shifts in the defense industry, which has pivoted to drones, hypersonic weapons and critical communications satellites. President Trump in May announced his $175-billion \u201cGolden Dome\u201d initiative for a satellite missile defense system to protect the U.S. from attacks on land, sea and space.<\/p>\n The Space Force also is trying to leverage technology developed by commercial companies for defense applications \u2014 so called dual-use technologies, with Starlink a prime example.<\/p>\n The changes are helping to spur a revival of the defense and aerospace industries in Southern California<\/a>, which include standouts Anduril Industries, an autonomous weapons maker in Costa Mesa that has plans to invest $1 billion in a Long Beach campus<\/a>, and K2 Space, a maker of satellite platforms in Torrance. <\/p>\n The Falcon 9 is the preferred rocket to send these systems into space, with its reusable booster that can land back on its pad. It offers low-cost flights that carry multiple payloads from different customers.<\/p>\n Varda Space Industries<\/a>, an El Segundo company developing pharmaceuticals in space that also is testing military hypersonic reentry technology, has flown five missions from Vandenberg and booked more.<\/p>\n Key to the endeavor is communications, which is where Starlink<\/a> fits in.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything feeds off the internet,\u201d Caceres said. \u201cEverything is based on instantaneous communications, speed and covering every inch of the planet.\u201d <\/p>\n Starlink satellites launched from the base are put into an orbit around the poles. That requires the Falcon 9 to fly closer to the coast than past base flights, causing sonic booms in Santa Barbara, Ventura and other Southern California communities.<\/p>\n (The satellites also are put into low-earth orbit from the Space Force\u2019s other launch site: the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station<\/a> in Florida, allowing the network to cover the globe.)<\/p>\n Space Force officials acknowledge that they didn\u2019t expect the Falcon flights to cause such a ruckus, even as the population of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties roughly doubled to nearly 1.3 million since the early 1970s, when the base was busy. The agency says it has begun measuring the impact of the flights.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of my preconceived ideas about these booms were simply wrong \u2014 that\u2019s why data gathering is so important,\u201d Brigham Young physics professor Kent Gee said in an an email. He is studying the issue for the Space Force <\/a>along with researchers at Cal State Bakersfield. <\/p>\n The researchers found that the most intense booms are heard from Santa Barbara to Oxnard and miles inland \u2014 especially in the spring and fall when upper-level winds carry the sound onshore, with somewhat fewer booms heard in the winter and very few in the summer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know so much more about these booms and their drivers than a year ago this time,\u201d Gee said.<\/p>\n The base is now launching fewer rockets at night and also deploying more monitoring stations in communities such as Ojai to better capture the impact. However, flights still occur during sleeping hours to achieve certain orbits.<\/p>\n \u201cPhysics gets a vote in every launch,\u201d Horne said. \u201cSometimes we have to.\u201d <\/p>\n A more direct effect of the flights is to the abundant wildlife on the vast base, only a fraction of which is developed and abuts nature preserves. Among it is the at-risk Buckwheat Blue Butterfly, the Western Spadefoot Toad and the Western Snowy Plover shorebird, as well as several marine mammals.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the last refuge for a lot of our species,\u201d acknowledges Darryl York, a wildlife biologist for the Space Force at Vandenberg.<\/p>\n Studies have shown that seals and other marine mammals can flee into the water during launches, which can cause injuries or lead them to abandon their colonies. Birds and other land wildlife are flushed from their nests too.<\/p>\n Col. James T. Horne III, commander of Vandenberg Space Force Base in his office.<\/p>\n (Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Studies are being conducted, but environmental groups such as the Gaviota Coast Conservancy<\/a> asked the Space Force to slow down the pace of new launches to better understand their cumulative impact \u2014 including when SpaceX\u2019s reusable boosters return back to the base under thrust. <\/p>\n The Space Force in October signed off on an environmental impact statement<\/a> under the National Environmental Policy Act, which governs federal land, for up to 95 Falcon 9 and five Falcon Heavy launches annually. It requires the agency to take measures to lessen the impacts and conduct additional studies. <\/p>\n That has failed to mollify environmentalists.<\/p>\n \u201cThe approach of just moving forward and doing the evaluations later means that we could have irretrievable loss of wildlife in their habitats that isn\u2019t easily replaceable elsewhere,\u201d said Ana Citrin, legal and policy director for the conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the region\u2019s coastline.<\/p>\n The Space Force also is at loggerheads with the California Coastal Commission, which enforces the California Coastal Act governing land use along the coast. In 2024 the commission rejected a plan<\/a> to have SpaceX launch up to 50 times annually, prompting a lawsuit by the company. Then in August it rejected another request<\/a> by the agency to increase its annual launches even more and fly the Falcon Heavy for the first time.<\/p>\n SpaceX launches national security and other payloads from the base, but the commission argues that the majority of the launches serve to advance Musk\u2019s internet satellite business and therefore it has authority over the flights, as well as any monitoring and mitigation measures. <\/p>\n Space Force officials disagree and are moving ahead with their plans.<\/p>\n \u201cThose Starlink launches that we\u2019re launching from here directly contribute to warfighter capability,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n Spaceport of the future<\/p>\n What is clear is the number of flights is bound to increase.<\/p>\n Horne said the military has been preparing for a higher cadence of flights with tours of major airports and seaports that handle large volumes of people and goods quickly. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re essentially overhauling everything we do to think more like that sort of a mindset,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Among the plans are upgrades to the base\u2019s rail service and harbor, alternatives to hauling up rockets to the base via nearby windy roads. The base also is setting aside a development zone for companies it hopes will locate there.<\/p>\n Economic development officials in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties seized on the prospect to attract more businesses to the region, foster innovation and develop the workforce for the new employment opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat that means for us on the Central Coast is that it is probably a once-in-a generation opportunity to really grow,\u201d said Melissa James, chief executive of REACH, a San Luis Obispo-based economic development nonprofit<\/a> that just received a state grant to fund its efforts.<\/p>\n SpaceX is not the only launch services company operating from Vandenberg. <\/p>\n Firefly Aerospace<\/a>, a Texas company, is launching a small rocket from the base. Phantom Space<\/a>, an Arizona startup, has approval to launch there. The United Launch Alliance last sent up a rocket in 2022 but developed a new rocket<\/a> called the Vulcan and is upgrading its pad for future flights.<\/p>\n Vandenberg Space Force Base is planning on expanding dramatically. <\/p>\n (Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Other fledgling rocket companies that could make use of the base include Relativity Space<\/a> in Long Beach and Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin<\/a>, a potential rival to SpaceX in Kent, Wash.<\/p>\n The big question is who might develop and operate a new super heavy launch pad on Vandenberg. Blue Origin is developing a New Glenn super heavy rocket<\/a> but it has not launched yet. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769804950_272_.jpeg\")
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