SLD 30 marks fifth anniversary

Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. — Space Launch Delta 30 marked its fifth anniversary this week, highlighting how the U.S. Space Force’s West Coast hub has shifted from a launch-focused installation to a broader national security platform with a record-setting operational tempo.

Redesignated on May 9, 2021, SLD 30 traces its lineage to the Army’s Camp Cooke, founded in 1941 and transferred to the Air Force in 1957. The base supported its first Thor missile launch in 1958 and the first polar-orbiting satellite in 1959, cementing its role as the nation’s primary high-capacity gateway to polar orbit from the West Coast.

“We have gone from a base known primarily for launch to a base recognized as a national security platform,” said Col. James T. Horne III, SLD 30 commander. “That is the evolution of SLD 30: launch is still central — but it is no longer the whole story.”

Base officials say Vandenberg now hosts more than 54 mission partners spanning government, intelligence and industry, and is the only Space Force installation serving as a NORAD and U.S. Northern Command alert base. The release lists the Department of War among those partners; the post-1947 successor is the Department of Defense.

A sustained push to lower launch costs and integrate commercial capabilities has helped drive the surge. After single-digit launch activity in 2020, SLD 30 supported 51 launches in 2024, the most in five decades, and topped that pace in 2025 with 77 combined space launches, missile tests and aeronautical operations.

The past five years brought a string of high-profile missions from the West Coast range. They include Landsat 9 in 2021, which marked Vandenberg’s 2,000th launch; NASA’s DART planetary defense test later that year; tactically responsive space missions such as TacRL-2 and VICTUS NOX; National Reconnaissance Office payloads; Missile Defense Agency tests; Minuteman III operational test launches and Sentinel modernization support; and early work underpinning an emerging hypersonic test enterprise.

Beyond the pad and range, the base has grown into a hub for command, control and training. According to the release, Vandenberg now hosts all three Space Force field commands—Space Systems Command, Combat Forces Command and Space Training and Readiness Command—and has added cyber units under SLD 30. (The Space Force’s field commands are Space Operations Command, Space Systems Command and Space Training and Readiness Command.) The installation also houses Space Delta 1, which trains and develops Guardians, and U.S. Space Forces–Space, which provides combat-relevant space effects to the joint force.

“Every launch, every test, every visit, every emergency response and every mission success rests on the shoulders of the Guardians, Airmen, civilians and families who ensure the excellence of this spaceport and test range,” Horne said. “You are the ones who turn national strategy into real-world capability.”

Looking ahead, base leaders anticipate continued growth in launch cadence and say the infrastructure will have to keep pace to accommodate heavy and super-heavy vehicles.

“What happens here matters,” Horne said. “It matters to national defense. It matters to our allies and partners. It matters to the future of space access.”

“We celebrate five years of transformation. Five years of growth. Five years of mission success,” he added. “Five years of proving that Vandenberg is not simply keeping pace with the future of space — Vandenberg is helping define it.”