WASHINGTON: SpaceX has been granted approval to lease a second rocket launch complex at a military base in California, the United States Space Force said late Monday, setting Elon Musk’s space company up for its fifth launch site in the US.
Under the lease, SpaceX will launch its workhorse Falcon rockets from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, a military launch site north of Los Angeles where the space company operates another launchpad. The space firm has two other in Florida and a private Starbase site in south Texas.
In a statement, Space Force said Space Launch Delta 30 commander Col. Rob Long on Friday signed a letter of support for the decision. The statement did not mention a duration of the lease.
The new launch site was last year vacated by the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance. It provides SpaceX more room to handle a growingly busy launch schedule for commercial, government and internal satellite launches.
Vandenberg Space Force Base allows for launches in a southern trajectory over the Pacific Ocean, which is often used for weather-monitoring, military or spy satellites that mostly rely on polar Earth orbits.
The development comes as rocket companies prepare to compete for the Pentagon’s Phase 3 National Security Space Launch program, a landmark military launch procurement effort expected to begin in the next year or so.
