There are more changes at Vandenberg than just launching additional missiles. This license gives SpaceX the green light to redevelop Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions. SpaceX plans to demolish unnecessary structures on SLC-6 (pronounced “Slick 6”) and build two new landing pads for Falcon boosters on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean just south of the pad.
SpaceX currently operates from a single platform at Vandenberg—Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E)– A few miles north of the SLC-6 site. The SLC-4E site was not prepared for the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket, an upgraded rocket with three Falcon 9 boosters bolted together.
slc-6, Surrounded by hills on three sides and surrounded by the ocean to the west, No stranger to big missiles. It was first developed for Air Force Manned Orbital Laboratory Program In the 1960s, when the military wanted to put a small space station in orbit for astronauts to spy on the Soviet Union. Crews prepared the complex to launch military astronauts atop Titan rockets, but the Pentagon canceled the program in 1969 before anything was actually launched from SLC-6.
NASA and the Air Force then modified SLC-6 to launch space shuttles. Space shuttle project It was stacked vertically in SLC-6 for fit inspection in 1985, but the Air Force abandoned the Vandenberg-based shuttle program after Challenger accident in 1986. The launch facility remained mostly idle for about two decades until Boeing, and then United Launch Alliance, acquired SLC-6 and began launching Delta IV rockets there in 2006.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise stands vertically at Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg. NASA used the shuttle to check fit on the pad, but it was never launched from California.
Credit: NASA
ULA launched its last Delta IV Heavy rocket from California in 2022, leaving the future of SLC-6 in question. ULA’s new rocket, Vulcan, will launch from a different pad at Vandenberg. Space Force officials selected SpaceX in 2023 to take over the platform and prepare it for the launch of the Falcon Heavy, which has the lift capacity to carry the largest military satellites into orbit.
There is no big rush
Progress on SLC-6 was slow. The environmental impact statement took nearly a year to prepare. In fact, there’s not much of a rush to bring the SLC-6 online. SpaceX doesn’t have any Falcon Heavy missions from Vandenberg in its contract backlog, but the company is part of the Pentagon’s established launch service providers. To qualify as a member of the club, SpaceX must have the ability to launch the Space Force’s heaviest missions from the military spaceports at Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral, Florida.