Vandenberg Air Force Base, near Santa Barbara, California, is home to the 30th Space Wing. This wing is responsible for all Department of Defense space and missile launches on the West Coast. Vandenberg is the only military base in the United States from which satellites can be launched into polar orbit without crossing populated areas.

Vandenberg was a busy training facility during the Second World War, when more than 400 different units moved through, and the Korean Conflict. However, it only came into its present prominence beginning in the mid 1950s. Due to the Cold War, the development and testing of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles was of the highest priority. After evaluating more than 200 different locations, the Air Force settled on the site then known as Camp Cooke.

The Air Research and Development Command and the Strategic Air Command cooperated in developing prototypes of launch pads, silos, and control facilities for ICBMs. In December 1958, Vandenberg launched its first missile, a Thor IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile.) That was followed two months later by the world's first polar orbiting satellite, Discoverer I.

Preparing for the Space Shuttle

In 1979, $4 billion was poured into Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex to prepare it for launching the Space Shuttle. The complex had been built in the 60s for a planned space laboratory, but that project had been canceled. Plans for launching the Space Shuttle from Vandenberg also had to be canceled after the Challenger tragedy in 1986, when NASA and the Air Force consolidated the project at Cape Canaveral in Florida.