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. 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.
United States Air Force 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. 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 (ARDC) to the
Strategic Air Command (SAC) 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. The Atlas-Ds were taken off alert at the 576th Strategic Missile Squadron (Complex 576B) 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 first
LGM-30G Minuteman III phase II operational test was launched on 5 December 1972 from the LF-02 silo. The ICBM flew downrange before impacting in the Pacific Ocean. This was the beginning of Minuteman III launches which continue to this day from Vandenberg. The first Peacekeeper with a Mark-21 test reentry vehicle was flight-tested from TP-01 on 15 June 1984. The Mark-21 resembled the reentry vehicle intended for the Peacekeeper weapon system. Two more test launches were conducted in 1984, the missile from TP-01. Air Force Systems Command conducted the final Peacekeeper launch from the above-ground TP-01 launch pad on 30 June 1985. The first test firing of the OBV took place from former Atlas-F pad 576-E on 6 February 2003. Launch silo LF-23 is used for ongoing silo testing, with target missiles consisting of surplus inert Minuteman ICBM second and third stages being launched from the
Kwajalein Meck launch site in the
Pacific Range.
Early space exploration The world's first polar orbit satellite,
Discoverer 1, launched from Vandenberg on 28 February 1959. The launch vehicle for this mission consisted of a
Thor-Agena combination. Ten Delta IVs were launched from SLC-6, with the last launching in 2022 before the site was relinquished to SpaceX.
Atlas V The
Atlas V was developed by
Lockheed Martin as part of the United States Air Force (USAF)
Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The Atlas V launches from
Space Launch Complex-3E (SLC-3E). Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services markets the Atlas V to government and commercial customers worldwide. The first Atlas V launch vehicle to fly from SLC-3E was launched on 19 March 2008 for the
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). All Atlas V launches from Vandenberg have been successful.
SpaceX Falcon , Vandenberg AFB (
Falcon 9 Flight 6) on 29 September 2013
SpaceX briefly used SLC-3W during the early development of the
Falcon 1 launch vehicle, and later moved operations to
Space Launch Complex 4-East (SLC-4E).
SpaceX refurbished SLC-4E for
Falcon 9 launches in a 24-month process that began in early 2011. The draft
environmental impact assessment with a finding of "no significant impact" was published in February 2011. By late 2012, SpaceX continued to anticipate that the initial launch from the Vandenberg pad would be in 2013, but would be a Falcon 9 launch—actually a heavily modified and much larger
Falcon 9 v1.1. As the pad was nearing completion in February 2013, the first Falcon 9 launch was scheduled for summer 2013 and was finally launched on 29 September 2013. This was the
maiden flight of the Falcon 9 v1.1 evolution, carrying Canada's
CASSIOPE satellite. In October 2018, SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a
Vandenberg ground pad for the first time. In April 2023, SpaceX leased SLC-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base to begin converting it and adding two first stage landing pads for
Falcon 9 and
Falcon Heavy launches after the last Delta IV launch there. SpaceX expects to begin Falcon 9 launches from SLC-6 in 2025 and Falcon Heavy launches in 2026.
Boeing X-37B The
Boeing X-37B, a reusable uncrewed spacecraft operated by the
Space Force, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), has landed at Vandenberg in the past. 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. Since then, the X-37B has successfully landed on the 15,000-foot runway at Vandenberg two more times, on 16 June 2012 after 468 days in orbit and again on 14 October 2014 after 674 days in orbit. All of the X-37B missions thus far have been launched from
Florida, the first four using expendable
Atlas V rockets from
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the fifth on a reusable
SpaceX Falcon 9 from
Kennedy Space Center.
Major commands to which assigned •
Air Research and Development Command, 21 June 1957 •
Strategic Air Command, 1 January 1958 •
Air Force Space Command, 15 January 1991 – 20 December 2019 •
Space Operations Command, 20 December 2019 – present
Major units assigned •
1st Strategic Aerospace Division, 16 July 1957 – 1 September 1991 •
392d Strategic Missile Wing, 18 October – 20 December 1961 • Space and Missile Test Center, 1 April 1970 – 1 July 1980 • Air Force Space Test Center, Provisional, 2 January – 15 May 1964 • Air Force Western Test Range, 5 May 1964 – 1 April 1970 : Redesignated Western Space and Missile Center, 1 October 1979 : Redesignated
30th Space Wing, 1 November 1991 – present •
704th Strategic Missile Wing (ICBM), 1 July 1957 – 1 July 1959 • 6565th Test Wing, 20 October 1960 : Redesignated
6595th Aerospace Test Wing, 1 April 1961 – 1 October 1979 •
10th Aerospace Defense Group, 1 January 1967 – 31 December 1971 (Aerospace Defense Command) •
30th Launch Group, 1 December 2003 – present •
30th Operations Group, 19 November 1991 – present • 6595th Missile Test Group, 1 May 1970 – 1 October 1990 • 6595th Space (later Satellite, later Aerospace) Test Group, 1 May 1970 – 1 October 1990 • 6595th Space Transportation (later Shuttle) Test Group, 21 May 1979 – 30 September 1987 •
2d Space Launch Squadron, 19 November 1991 – 31 October 2005; 1 June 2019 – present •
4th Space Launch Squadron, 15 April 1994 – 29 June 1998; 1 December 2003 – 31 May 2019 •
10th Aerospace Defense Squadron, 15 November 1963 – 1 January 1967; 31 December 1970 – 1 November 1979 • 394th Missile Testing Squadron (ICBM-Atlas), 1 April – 15 December 1958 •
394th Strategic Missile Squadron (ICBM-Titan), 1 July 1960 – 30 June 1976 : Redesignated 394th Test Maintenance Squadron, 1 July 1976 : Redesignated 394th Operational Missile Maintenance Squadron, 1 September 1991 : Redesignated 394th Field Missile Maintenance Squadron, 1 September 1994 – present •
395th Strategic Missile Squadron (ICBM-Titan), 1 February 1959 – 31 December 1969 •
576th Strategic Missile Squadron (ICBM-Atlas), 1 April 1958 – 2 April 1966 : Redesignated
576th Flight Test Squadron, 1 September 1991 – present : Assigned to
Air Force Global Strike Command, 1 December 2009 – present • 644th Strategic Missile Squadron, 15 January – 1 November 1959 • 670th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, 5 May 1950 – 2 August 1951 • 4315th Combat Crew Training Squadron, 1 May 1958 – 15 January 1991
United States Space Force On 14 May 2021, the base was renamed
Vandenberg Space Force Base, in keeping with the expansion and standing up of the Space Force. As of March 2025, the Space Force has activated the Site Activation Task Force (SATAF) Detachment to modernize the nation's nuclear defence capabilities, preparing to replace the Minuteman III ICBM fleet with the newly developed LGM-35A Sentinel. == Role and operations ==