Will the Shuttle ever launch from Vandenberg?

[bernse]

I remember years ago NASA talking about launching from Vandenberg AFB for polar orbit missions.

Why has the Shuttle never (AFAIK) never done this? Is it now forbidden to do so or something?

[Ice_Wolf]

Apparently, the program there was mothballed in 1988 in the wake of the Challenger disaster. The runways built for the shuttle missions are now used for the airshows there.

They probably haven’t reversed that decision due to budget concerns.

[TheeGrumpy]

Since then, there’s a new launch facility on Kodiak Island which is better suited to polar orbits, though it certainly doesn’t have a shuttle-sized pad or control room.

It is, I think, one of the four orbital launch sites in the U.S., next to Kennedy, Vandenberg, and some joint in Virginia.

This is assuming, of course, that the shuttles will be launched again, ever.

[carnivorousplant]

You are well named, three.

[MC_E]

I believe that would be Wallops Island, Virginia I don’t think they could accomodate the Space Shuttle, but they claim to have a large restricted airspace available to launch in. They also say polar orbits require an in-flight azimuth correction.

MC$E

[Duckster]

NASA Shuttle Launch Information

[scr4]

My WAG is that the Vandenberg launch site was intended primarily for military flights. While earth science observations can benefit from polar flights, the most common use of polar orbits is reconnaisance.

[Rillian]

The star-crossed history of SLC-6 can be read at http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/launch/sts_slc-6.htm, among other places.

Just one example of the problems at SLC-6:

"Another outstanding problem was blast protection. SLC-6 was a surprisingly compact facility for a rocket as large as the Shuttle. At lift-off the launch control center is less than 1,200 feet from the pad, and the other facilities also are very close. It was long unclear what sorts of additional protection for these structures might be required to shield them from the intense acoustic, blast and thermal environment of a Shuttle lift-off. "

[Rillian]

To address the thread title "Will the Shuttle ever launch from Vandenberg? " specificially, the answer is no.

The Shuttle launch facilities at Vandenberg were removed, re-used, mothballed post-Challenger.

With only three shuttles left and no likelihood of a fourth, all future Shuttle launches, if any, will take place at Cape Canaveral.

Now if we talk about the replacement for the Shuttle, maybe.

[Hail_Ants]

This from Encyclopedia Astronautica:

Eventually the Nixon administration advised NASA that not only were there to be no flights to Mars, no nuclear interplanetary stages, no space station, no more Saturn V’s, no orbital transfer vehicle - but there wouldn’t be a space shuttle either if NASA couldn’t get the development cost down and get the USAF to participate. A USAF requirement was a large cross-range to allow recovery of the orbiter at Vandenberg AFB from polar orbits in the case of abort-once-around scenarios.

---

In the final analysis the shuttle came up short in two areas. First, the shuttle orbiter ended up almost 20% over its specified weight - resulting in it being unable to boost the US Air Force’s payloads into polar orbits from Vandenberg. Lighter filament-would casing Solid Rocket Boosters were being developed for use in flights from Vandenberg, but even this did not seem enough. After the Challenger explosion the USAF was able to extricate itself from the Shuttle program. The Vandenberg launch complex, built at the cost of billions, was mothballed. The Air Force started a new costly development program to design the Titan 4 expendable rocket for its large military payloads.

The article on the site (which hasn’t been updated since 1999) ends rather prophetically:

With construction of the international space station beginning, NASA is looking forward to finally using the shuttle for its intended purpose. Due to the lower than planned flight rate, NASA’s contractors are confident they can keep the existing shuttles flying through 2030. The real test will come when (inevitably) another shuttle is lost.