Vandenberg Space Force Base

History

Vandenberg Space Force Base (IATA: VBG, ICAO: KVBG, FAA LID: VBG), 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.

Text from Wikipedia: Vandenberg Space Force Base, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1941
   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.
2. 1958
   On 16 October 1958, the first Atlas ICBM launcher (576A-1) constructed at Vandenberg AFB, California, was accepted from the contractor by the 1st Missile Division.
3. 1962
   Construction of the first Titan II site began in 1962, and eventually Vandenberg operated four Titan II launch complexes.
4. 1963
   However, in 1963, a restructuring returned major sections of this range, including Point Arguello, to the Air Force.
5. 1972
   The first LGM-30G Minuteman III phase II operational test was launched on 5 December 1972 from the LF-02 silo.
6. 1972
   In 1972, Vandenberg was selected as the West Coast Space Shuttle launch and landing site, but it was never used as such.
7. 1985
   The first silo launch from LF-05 took place on 24 August 1985 from LF-08.
8. 1989
   After the end of the shuttle program at Vandenberg in 1989, SLC-6 was reconfigured in 1999 to support polar-orbit satellite launches by the new Delta IV family of launch vehicles, utilizing a Common Core Booster for all its class sizes including the Delta IV (Heavy) launcher.
9. 2010
   On 3 December 2010, the X-37B spaceplane successfully landed at the base after 224 days in space thus performing the first autonomous orbital landing onto a runway conducted by a U.S. spacecraft.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone at this base

A base history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Morning reports and unit rosters: access (National Personnel Records Center)
• Search Army morning reports, 1912–1946 (National Archives Catalog)
• Unit and organizational records held in St. Louis

More history

• California State Military Museum
• Air Force Historical Research Agency
• National Park Service
• Wikipedia: Vandenberg Space Force Base