Space Launch Complex 8 (SLC-8), is a launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, United States. It is currently only used by Minotaur rockets. It was originally part of the California Spaceport and was known as the Commercial Launch Facility (CLF) or Space Launch Facility (SLF).[1] In addition to supporting occasional Minotaur rockets, SLC-8 is capable of hosting small launch vehicles thanks to a new clean pad built in 2019; as of 2024, this has not been used.[2] Much like the Minotaur rocket family itself, SLC-8 has seen little use since the early 2010s.[3]
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| Launch site | Vandenberg Space Force Base | ||||||||||||
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| Location | 34°34′34″N 120°37′57″W / 34.5762°N 120.6324°W | ||||||||||||
| Time zone | UTC−08:00 (PST) | ||||||||||||
• Summer (DST) | UTC−07:00 (PDT) | ||||||||||||
| Short name | SLC-8 | ||||||||||||
| Operator |
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| Orbital inclination range | 51° – 145° | ||||||||||||
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As of May 2024, nine rockets - six Minotaur I and three Minotaur IV - have been launched from SLC-8.
Pad description
editSLC-8 was built in the late 1990s to support Minotaur rockets from Vandenberg, and is the southernmost launch complex at the base. It is the fourth launch site at Vandenberg to support the Minotaur family, after TP-01, SLC-576E, and LF-06. Minotaur launches from SLC-8 are controlled from the Integrated Processing Facility (IPF) at the neighboring Space Launch Complex 6, which itself was originally built for Space Shuttle payload processing. Other launches from the complex can be controlled from a new launch control center at north Vandenberg.[4]
Minotaur rockets are assembled and prepared for flight inside an 88-foot-tall mobile assembly gantry built around 2005. The Minotaur launch mount is rated for launch vehicles up to 150 tons in mass and one million pounds of thrust.[4]
The clean pad, measuring 15 by 15 feet of reinforced concrete, is available for small launch vehicles of up to 20 tons in mass and was built in 2019. Two adjacent pads were also built to host fuel and oxidizer equipment. Companies using the pad must bring their own ground support equipment.[2]
Rocket configuration
editReferences
edit- ^ "SLC-8 Overview". Spaceport Systems International. 1999.
- ^ a b "Spaceports By State". faa.gov. Archived from the original on April 7, 2024.
- ^ Wade, Mark. "Vandenberg SLC8". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2008-09-19. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
- ^ a b "Spaceports By State". ccspacemuseum.org.
34°34′34″N 120°37′57″W / 34.5762°N 120.6324°W
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