Talk:Vandenberg Air Force Base

Visitor centers

Are there visitor centers and rocket exhibitions? Are there tours for visitors?

"Vandenberg is also used for the launch of non-militaric satellites in polar orbits"

i have very serious doubts as to whether 'militaric' is a real word (apologies if it's a typo)

i think 'military' suits ok - changing article to reflect this

ahpook 13:50, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Shuttle

"Over $100,000 were spent on the new space shuttle modifications." um, that figure sounds insanely low, but I'm not changing it since I don't have the actual figures. Jafafa Hots 12:32, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

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Runway Extension etc.?

I was stationed at Vandenberg in the 70's and worked on the flightline there. Wasn't the runway at Vandenberg lengthened to accomodate expected landings of the Space Shuttle in the late 70's? If so, this should be included in the article. Also some mention of the program in which Minuteman Missiles were test-launched from C-5A aircraft in a program that came out of Vandenberg during the same time. Spyneyes 03:36, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Abort options for a shuttle going to polar orbit?

At Other launch sites...? on Space.com's forums, I was wondering what abort options where available for a orbiter attempting to reach polar orbit from Vandenberg by launching south. Will (Talk - contribs) 07:50, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Tom Clancy novel...

I think Vandenberg was the launch site for an ASAT operation in one of the earlier Clancy novels. RobertTaylor21 22:02, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Slick 6 (shuttle) catastrophic design flaw

My stepfather worked at VFB for a number of years in the mid 1980s. He told me that the air force and nasa utterly failed in the construction of slick 6 - this is the explanation he gave me:

Slick 6 at VAFB is a closed vented pad. The back (bottom when standing as an upright package) of the shuttle sits nearly at ground level. The pad sits on the top of a high bluff just a few hundred yards from the coast. In order to prevent the exhaust from damaging the facilities and launch vehicle, vent tunnels were created that would vent the exhaust out to the side of the bluff to the ocean. This differs greatly from the space shuttle launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center, where the launch vehicles sit high off the gound at the pad and use a simple deflector to divert the blast off to the sides of the facility.

Now the problem: In at least one case (sorry, but I don't remember and cant find the mission number) the shuttles main engines had started but the launch was aborted before launch at something like T-0:02 (ie: no SRB ignition) and resulting in MECO while on the pad. During the engine shutdown sequence, the fuel/oxidizer mixture becomes unstable and results in a near explosive force as mixture leans out (anyone who has ever gas welded can discuss or demonstrate the "pop" when one shuts off the fuel before the oxygen). It was determined by NASA that if such a shutdown occurred at slick 6, the vents would not be sufficient to counter the overpressure created by such a shutdown and such a shutdown would likely destroy the vehicle, launch assembly, and kill the crew. This is not a problem at KSC since the pads are open vented and such these high overpressures simply disperse. I was told that this is why the shuttle never flew from VAFB as the cost of refitting the pad and all the support structures was just not worth the effort and expense for the air force (since this slick was really for military payloads for the airforce and not for nasa). Also note that such closed vented launch facilities are common at VAFB, however such a setup is simply not ideal for manned spaceflight since the cost of failure costs more than just money in such a case.

If these facts check out, it would be an interesting information to be wikified and integrated into the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.31.184.166 (talk) 15:29, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

Space Shuttle Polar Orbit

As a quick response to using the space shuttle to achieve a polar orbit - The reason the US places its primary launch facilities in Florida was due to its proximity to the equator and it allows launches to the east without crossing land until you hit Africa. This is important because the launch vehicles carry very finite amounts of fuel (energy) and can barely attain orbit under ideal circumstances. Launching the east means that the earth's rotation is contributed to the energy budget since just sitting at the pad the vehicle is in essence already traveling with around 1000 mph of delta-V for orbit. If you wanted to launch to the west, you have to basically attain around 1000 mph (ie: in atmosphere) just to hit 0 velocity for orbit. Also being near the equator means that you do not need to expend as much fuel to sychronize your orbital plan with either the equator or to align with other solar targets (ie: moon, mars, etc.). This plane is what creates "launch windows" that allow the spacecraft to launch into an orbit essentially already aligned to solar targets (rember the earth has a 6 degree inclination in the orbital plane). This is why when you see the big map in mission control, most trajectories appears as a sinewave undulating back and forth over the equator.

Anyway, back to polar orbit. Polar orbit requires more energy than eastern launch orbit due to the first part I mentioned which is the contribution of the earths own motion and rotation to the launch. Without this contribution, I am sure the shuttle could make orbit (polar) since it has more excess energy than any orbital insertion vehicle ever built (Apollo does not count as its intent was to leave orbit) however there would certainly be a severe payload penalty and/or it would impact the ability to achieve higher orbits. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.31.184.166 (talk) 15:55, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

Due to its geographic location, VAFB is only suitable for polar and retrograde orbits. The shuttle was designed to reach polar orbit from VAFB and land back at VAFB – that's why it has those huge wings... ComputerGeezer 03:23, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

VAFBs location does not preclude prograde orbits for any reason other than safety. The reason you launch prograde from Florida and retrograde from California is simply a matter of the space vehicles not overflying populated areas during the boost phase of the flight that is the most likely flight regime to experience failures. This precaution lessons the possibility of a crash into populated terrain. Ideally you want your launch vehicle to acheive orbit before it will pass close to any populated area so that if the vehicle was to malfunction or be destroyed by flight safety due to loss of control that its debris would not pose a serios risk to the population below. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.31.184.166 (talk) 14:06, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Article rating

Currently this article is rated by three wikiprojects. WikiProject Space rates it Start-Class, the Aviation WikiProject rates it B-Class and the Military history WikiProject rates it B-Class. I considered up-rating it to B-Class for WikiProject Space, but decided not to do so because of the relative lack of references and citiations. (Of course anyone else may make this change if they wish, but for convenience, here's a checklist of areas often considered for a B-Class rating: Referencing and citation, Coverage and accuracy, Structure, Grammar, Supporting materials.) (sdsds - talk) 03:51, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Vandenberg in popular culture

• In the computer game Deus Ex, Vandenberg is the headquarters of X-51, a group of ex-Majestic 12 scientists and US military soldiers.

• In the 2000 made-for-television movie Rocket's Red Glare, starring Robert Wagner and Marilu Henner, Vandenberg was the launch location of a restored Mercury Redstone rocket. The movie included several USAF members playing themselves as launch technicians.

• Vandenberg was the launch site of the American space shuttle in the James Bond film Moonraker.

• Vandenberg has also been featured in episodes of the television series Lassie, Perry Mason (in the 1961 episode The Case of the Misguided Missile), The Bionic Woman ("Fembots in Las Vegas" filmed in and around the mothballed Manned Orbiting Laboratory-era SLC-6), The Fall Guy.

• In Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, the "Scoop" satellite (which brings back the micro-organism from space) originates at Vandenberg.

• In the movie, Terminator 3, Vandenberg was mentioned as one of the bases that were annexed by Skynet.

• Vandenberg appears in first season JAG episode "Recovery." The episode, set in 1995, depicts Vandenberg's military space shuttle operations as active and ongoing. In the episode, Shuttle Atlantis (which appears on screen, but is exclusively referred to in dialogue simply as "the space shuttle") is launched on a mission to repair a US spy satellite, only to be jeopordized by a traitor American scientist paid by the Chinese government to sabotage the recovery mechanism. Sleuthing LCDR Harmon Rabb and LTJG Meg Austin foil the plot.

• In the Disney Movie My Favorite Martian, one scene is filmed at Vandenberg.

• In the 1995 film Outbreak, The Vandenberg Airbase is the place where the bomber take off to the infected town to deploy the bomb.

• In the science fiction novel Shuttle Down by Lee Correy, the Shuttle Atlantis, carrying a Landsat satellite intended for polar orbit and launched from Vandenberg, must abort and has to land on Easter Island (Isla de Pascua), Chile.

• In a second season episode of A&E's Mindfreak, Criss Angel visits Vandenberg in a tribute to the Armed Forces. Among other tricks, Angel makes a Hummer appear as though from thin air.

Project to move all Trivia to Talk. LanceBarber (talk) 19:47, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Politics

What is the purpose of including this section? I nominate it for removal. LorenzoB (talk) 17:13, 14 November 2008 (UTC)