Vandenberg Shuttle Facilities

[Hog]

OMCF=Orbiter Maintenance Checkout Facility

attachments (courtesy USAF)
a)SLC-6
b)SLC-6
c)SLC-6 from the South

[Blackstar]

I just acquired a bunch of concept art (1978-1980) for VAFB shuttle facilities, so I'm going to write a short article to show off the art.

Before I open up Jenkins' big shuttle book to look, I have a couple of questions that maybe people here know off the top of their head.

Where can I find the annual launch rate for VAFB/VSFB for the past two decades? I know that it increased a lot in the past two years with Falcon 9 launches, but I'd like to get an understanding of what it was this century.

What was the expected VAFB shuttle launch rate as of 1980? I am sure that there is a projected manifest somewhere that predicted X number of Florida launches and Y number of Vandenberg launches. Anybody have any tips?

[Blackstar]

Okay, I have a partial answer to my question above.

The original plan was for 20 launches a year from VAFB with a two-shuttle fleet assigned to Vandenberg. This may have required a second pad.

This was later revised down to about 17 launches per year, and then further to 13 launches per year. That's discussed in the attached 1977 Government Accounting Office document. I assume that by 1980, the number dropped a bit more, probably to around 8-10 a year.

[Blackstar]

Well, maybe I wrote that too soon. This 1978 GAO report indicates that the military launch model by 1978 required only four shuttle launches per year from Vandenberg.

I'll keep digging.

[Blackstar]

This GAO report from October 1986 indicates that they were considering two possible Vandenberg shuttle launch requirements--four launches per year and one launch per year. So it looks that by 1978 the expected number was four and this stayed constant over time. It is possible it went up a bit. I wrote about DAMON and that would have required several shuttle launches per year. But DAMON was canceled not much after it had started.

[zubenelgenubi]

<snip>
The original plan was for 20 launches a year from VAFB with a two-shuttle fleet assigned to Vandenberg. This may have required a second pad.
<snip>

That would explain the the two launch pads on the map in Jim's OP.

[map]

[Blackstar]

That would explain the the two launch pads on the map in Jim's OP.

According to one of the GAO documents I posted above, as of 1977, the plan was for the first pad to be available by 1982, and a decision to be made by the early 1980s if the second pad was necessary, with a goal of having it ready by 1986. Of course, SLC-6 was not ready until 1986, and was shut down only a few months before completion.

[Blackstar]

It is not the focus of my upcoming short article, but the expected number of VAFB shuttle launches raises some interesting questions--what led them to believe that they would have approximately 17, and then approximately 13, launches per year? Most of those would have been reconnaissance satellites, and even by the mid-1970s the NRO was only launching a handful of them per year, not the monthly launches of the 1960s.

I have been hoping that we would get more NRO documents on their expected use of the shuttle, but it has slowed down in the last few years. My article on DAMON and HEXAGON on shuttle explored some plans to use shuttle as a reconnaissance platform (not just a launch vehicle). But it's hard to see how they could do eight or more reconnaissance missions per year with shuttle.

[Spiceman]

Maybe it was a case of "Hans Mark shuttle enthusiasm". He was really the kind of guy who would push for multiple DAMON missions per year: making the Shuttle a kind of "spaceborne SR-71" or "orbital U-2".
Also launch on crisis. Arguing that "yes, we have KH-9s in orbit, but Shuttle can add additional capability in time of crisis." Making the KH-9 reusable, launching on demand every 15 days or less (cough, cough), bringing down film at a runway, hence faster than those pesky buckets parachuted in the Pacific...
Whatever Shuttle justification borrowed from NASA 1972 playbook ("bring it and they will come") and adapted to spy satellites.

[Blackstar]

Maybe it was a case of "Hans Mark shuttle enthusiasm". He was really the kind of guy who would push for

Yes, I believe that is the general answer. I would like to get a more specific answer. I need to figure out what records to FOIA from NRO.

[Jim]

Where can I find the annual launch rate for VAFB/VSFB for the past two decades? I know that it increased a lot in the past two years with Falcon 9 launches, but I'd like to get an understanding of what it was this century.

Gunter's?  Look at Titan II/IV, Delta II/IV and Atlas II/III

[Blackstar]

Where can I find the annual launch rate for VAFB/VSFB for the past two decades? I know that it increased a lot in the past two years with Falcon 9 launches, but I'd like to get an understanding of what it was this century.

Gunter's?  Look at Titan II/IV, Delta II/IV and Atlas II/III

I tried that. No luck. I'll have to ask Jonathan McDowell, who can probably pull this out of a database.

[Blackstar]

I don't want to turn this into a big article, so I am resisting diving into it too much. I have looked at Jenkins' shuttle book to see what is in there and will look at it again. Most of his focus was on SLC-6, and I need to understand what other shuttle facilities were built at VAFB that were ultimately repurposed. The artwork I have shows a parachute maintenance building and also a large shuttle ET maintenance building that could hold up to five ETs. I don't know if either of those was built.

It's always impressive to look at photos of the SLC-6 construction. It was a huge project. A couple of years ago I was lucky to get an exclusive tour of SLC-6 while the Delta IV Heavy was on the pad. I got to go under, alongside, and above the rocket, which was really cool. My guide also pointed out some of the changes from MOL to shuttle and then from shuttle to Delta IV. For instance the original MOL complex had fire escapes down from the tower that were not enclosed, meaning that anybody using them could be overcome by smoke, so they were replaced with enclosed stairwells--the original stairwells were still there, but they were blocked off. There was another major difference on the ground in front of the rocket, where a rotating structure had been replaced. And some of the flame trenches were partially filled in.

[edzieba]

Where can I find the annual launch rate for VAFB/VSFB for the past two decades? I know that it increased a lot in the past two years with Falcon 9 launches, but I'd like to get an understanding of what it was this century.

Gunter's?  Look at Titan II/IV, Delta II/IV and Atlas II/III

I tried that. No luck. I'll have to ask Jonathan McDowell, who can probably pull this out of a database.

VSFB launches per year attached (filtered from Jonathan's GCAT).

[th]Year[/th]     [th]Launch count[/th]
1958	1
1959	20
1960	25
1961	28
1962	58
1963	91
1964	105
1965	101
1966	122
1967	115
1968	78
1969	95
1970	87
1971	84
1972	65
1973	44
1974	49
1975	47
1976	41
1977	32
1978	32
1979	27
1980	27
1981	21
1982	17
1983	28
1984	23
1985	17
1986	17
1987	20
1988	13
1989	13
1990	13
1991	16
1992	13
1993	11
1994	14
1995	11
1996	16
1997	19
1998	18
1999	17
2000	16
2001	12
2002	13
2003	12
2004	8
2005	9
2006	11
2007	8
2008	10
2009	8
2010	10
2011	9
2012	4
2013	11
2014	6
2015	7
2016	7
2017	14
2018	13
2019	10
2020	5
2021	10
2022	19
2023	35
2024	36

[Blackstar]

Thank you for that. Does that include suborbital launches like Minuteman?


Update: Jonathan just told me 286 launches this century, including suborbital like Minuteman.

[edzieba]

Thank you for that. Does that include suborbital launches like Minuteman?

It does. Here's just orbital launches:

[th]Year[/th]     [th]Count[/th]
1959	8
1960	11
1961	17
1962	26
1963	21
1964	32
1965	40
1966	46
1967	40
1968	32
1969	22
1970	17
1971	19
1972	21
1973	12
1974	13
1975	14
1976	13
1977	7
1978	14
1979	6
1980	9
1981	8
1982	5
1983	11
1984	10
1985	5
1986	4
1987	5
1988	7
1989	2
1990	3
1991	5
1992	4
1993	4
1994	6
1995	6
1996	8
1997	11
1998	11
1999	11
2000	8
2001	5
2002	3
2003	6
2004	3
2005	5
2006	6
2007	4
2008	4
2009	6
2010	3
2011	6
2012	2
2013	5
2014	4
2015	2
2016	3
2017	9
2018	9
2019	3
2020	1
2021	7
2022	16
2023	30
2024	33
2024	36

[Blackstar]

Working a bit more on my article (again, it's going to be relatively short, not a detailed history of this subject), I decided to look at Google Earth to see what shuttle facilities were built and still standing. I looked for the ET storage and processing facility and found it just a short distance south of SLC-6. It was designed to store four ETs and process a fifth.

I suspect that this building was never used, even for Delta IV. It's just too big, and at the southern part of the base there's not really any activities over there that would require it. What are they going to fill it with, lawnmowers and dump trucks?  Next time I am out there I'll have to ask my buddy if we can get over there and see it.

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Working a bit more on my article (again, it's going to be relatively short, not a detailed history of this subject), I decided to look at Google Earth to see what shuttle facilities were built and still standing. I looked for the ET storage and processing facility and found it just a short distance south of SLC-6. It was designed to store four ETs and process a fifth.

I suspect that this building was never used, even for Delta IV. It's just too big, and at the southern part of the base there's not really any activities over there that would require it. What are they going to fill it with, lawnmowers and dump trucks?  Next time I am out there I'll have to ask my buddy if we can get over there and see it.

This site is now leased out to Relativity Space to build a new pad there for their Terran-R rocket.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/24/3d-rocket-printer-relativity-signs-deal-with-iridium-and-plans-to-build-a-california-launchpad.html

Relativity just announced they’ve secured a launch site at Vandenberg on the southern tip of the base, and a launch contract with Iridium to fly 6 of their satellites. As well as a Chief Financial Officer with investment banking/fundraising background. Pretty big news! That is some solid, very solid, business progress. Methinks as long as the printing tech is actually working, they will definitely make it to orbit just a matter of time now... and they’ll probably have the capital to do it if they don’t already given this kind of business traction which is catnip for investors.

[Blackstar]

I'm not doing any deep dive research on VAFB and the shuttle. I have another article in draft form that I may go back to some day and it goes into things like the acquisition of the land that was then used for SLC-6. My current article is mainly just an excuse to show off a bunch of artwork.

One interesting fact that a friend of mine pointed out was that the large ET storage facility, capable of storing four ETs while processing a fifth, was based on a concern that in event of war, the Panama Canal could be shut down. Now I'm not sure how you get to that point--if it is WWIII, then the launch site will get nuked, so it doesn't matter if the canal is open or closed. Maybe they were concerned about instability in Panama, which did eventually become rather unstable.

[Jim]

One interesting fact that a friend of mine pointed out was that the large SRB storage facility, capable of storing four SRBs while processing a fifth, was based on a concern that in event of war, the Panama Canal could be shut down. Now I'm not sure how you get to that point--if it is WWIII, then the launch site will get nuked, so it doesn't matter if the canal is open or closed. Maybe they were concerned about instability in Panama, which did eventually become rather unstable.

ET storage facility I believe. That is the building in reply #36.  SRB building were on the north side near the railroad tracks.