SpaceX is getting permission to launch its mainstay Falcon 9 rocket from a second launch pad in Southern California, giving it a fourth launch site for its commercial and US government missions.<\/p>\n
The decision, announced Tuesday on the US Space Force\u2019s\u00a0website<\/a>,<\/strong> grants a lease to Elon Musk\u2019s company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., to lift off from an unused launch pad on Vandenberg Space Force Base.<\/p>\n It joins one other pad there and two on the central Florida coast as sites for SpaceX launches of its resuable, two-stage Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an exciting time for Vandenberg Space Force Base, our nation\u2019s premier West Coast launch site for military, civil and commercial space operations,\u201d Col. Rob Long, commander of Space Launch Delta 30, said in the statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis agreement will add to the rich history of SLC-6 and builds on the already strong partnership with SpaceX.\u201d<\/p>\n A representative for SpaceX had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n The lease applies to SLC-6, a launch pad that hasn\u2019t been used since a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket lifted off on Sept. 24.<\/p>\n The former Vandenberg Air Force Base was renamed Vandenberg Space Force Base in May 2021 and the base\u2019s 30th Space Wing was re-designated as Space Launch Delta 30, a unit of the Space Force aligned under Space Operations Command.<\/p>\n It joins one other pad in California and two on the central Florida coast as sites for SpaceX launches of its resuable, two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":469201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[26520,34625,77492,11375,85837],"class_list":["post-489119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-california","tag-falcon-9","tag-rocket-launches","tag-spacex","tag-us-space-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489125,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489119\/revisions\/489125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: Ispace moon lander may have crashed<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"