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Space Science

Vandenberg AFB Missile Launches 129

Posted by michael from the rocketman dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "Hi All: My Space Archive web site covers the activities of Vandenberg AFB, a military and civilian spaceport on California's central coast. After several weeks of work, I have finished extensively revising and expanding the Viewing Vandenberg AFB Launches page on my site. I've been observing and photographing these launches for several years. Some are visible over much of the western U.S., but there is little information about them. As far as I know, this is the only article ever written on observing these launches. Regards, Brian Webb"
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Vandenberg AFB Missile Launches More

Vandenberg AFB Missile Launches

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  • Hrmph (Score:5, Funny)

    by TobyIRC ( 582495 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @02:57PM (#10158426)
    I doubt the men in suits will be very pleased that you've been recording their activites.

    There's probably something in the PATRIOT ACT reguarding this.

  • Paranoia time? (Score:4, Funny)

    by CdBee ( 742846 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:02PM (#10158449)
    I wonder if the author will find himself being tailed by suited guys in cars from now on....
    • >>Iwonder if the author will find himself being tailed by suited guys in cars from now on....

      Naw, he'll be too busy working on his tan...on the tarmac at Gitmo.

    • I wonder if the author will find himself being tailed by suited guys in cars from now on....

      He should. How many countries would want this data? Rhetorical question: everyone. So even if he has naive intentions, this needs to be investigated because of possible impacts.

  • Launches are cool but (Score:5, Interesting)

    by John Harrison ( 223649 ) <johnharrison AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:02PM (#10158454) Homepage Journal
    Test firings last longer!

    I spent a year working at Thiokol and they frequenlty test fired shuttle boosters and peacekeepers. Since the motor is strapped to a gigantic concrete slab it doesn't go anywhere.

    From a half mile away the effect is impressive. First you see a bright light but there is no noise. When the sound hits you it feels like you have been hit. If there is tall grass it bends over as the shock wave approaches. Then the sound just does not let up. Like a deep tissue amssage for a minute.

    • Like a deep tissue amssage for a minute.

      Ooooh! Sounds relaxing!

    • From a half mile away the effect is impressive. First you see a bright light but there is no noise. When the sound hits you it feels like you have been hit. If there is tall grass it bends over as the shock wave approaches. Then the sound just does not let up. Like a deep tissue amssage for a minute.

      As the hair cells in your cochlea cry out, "Help us! We're melting!!"

    • I remember a night firing Thiokol did ~10-12 yrs. ago. We lived twenty miles away from the test sight and even from that distance you could hear it. The light it put out was like a sunset, but localized.

      I remember going out to watch test firings during the Solid Rocket Booster redesign. Very cool! They don't happen very often now. Thiokol is a shell of what it was before the Challenger disaster.

  • bahahhaah.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by isaac338 ( 705434 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:04PM (#10158459)
    "Anonymous Coward writes.." ... "regards, Brian Webb".

    nice anonymity!


    • > "Anonymous Coward writes.." ... "regards, Brian Webb".

      Maybe he's just trying to prove to his courtship rival, Brian, that black helicopters really do exist.

  • in Further news (Score:5, Insightful)

    by arakon ( 97351 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:07PM (#10158469) Homepage
    A suspected terrorist was arrested in California today. He was reportedly gathering military intelligence and distributing it to terrorist cells via the internet.

    Now for the weather....

  • Known, Vandenberg publishes schedules. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:08PM (#10158472)
    There was one during daylight a year or two ago. You could see it in the SF Bay area, and all the news outlets reported on it. The launches are somewhat routine, testing missile detection equipment in the Aleutian islands. They happened to have perfect weather in the late afternoon, so they took an early shot. Scared the shit out of a lot of people.

    Some of the launches are published on-line from Vandenberg AFB [af.mil]. And there are hobby sites [socal-skylights.org] tracking them. Not new.

    • No way could you see a launch from VAFB in S.F. I'm sorry, but that's a dream you had, I suppose you can see commercial aircraft flying over Lompoc also?
      • Vandenberg Minuteman launches to the Kwajalein test range are easy to see from Sacramento.

        They rise about 30 degrees above the horizon, and the second-stage flameout and staging is easy to see. They leave beautiful aqua-marine colored contrails.
    • Not all of them. Vandenberg is the launch site for the targets used in testing EKV (uhm, mid-Phase Intercept or whatever they're calling it now). Targets out of Vandenberg, interceptors out of Kwaj [army.mil].
    • Twilight launches are the best. The setting sun catches the ice crystals and exhaust vapor and makes huge, glowing, twisted trails in the evening sky. Might have been the one the parent post mentions, but there was a launch (MSLS I think) that got just perfect conditions, and I heard it stopped traffic on the Strip in Las Vegas, hundreds of miles away.

      My name and office phone are listed on the schedule site, and I got deluged with calls... from the public, TV stations, and a UFO research organization. I

  • Aviation Week (Score:4, Informative)

    by Detritus ( 11846 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:09PM (#10158474) Homepage
    Aviation Week & Space Technology (trade magazine) has run numerous articles on the activities at VAFB. There are regular ICBM launches from VAFB to test/train missile crews and to test the reliability of the ageing ICBMs in the USAF arsenal. The warheads are removed from the ICBM and replaced with a telemetry and range safety package.

    • There are regular ICBM launches from VAFB to test/train missile crews and to test the reliability of the ageing ICBMs in the USAF arsenal.

      I imagine several countries would be curious to find out if our ICBMs are failing tests. A web site like this would certainly help them find out. This could also be an argument for maintaining a strategic bomber force, if only a token one.

      • Re:Aviation Week (Score:3, Insightful)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )
        haha, foriegn power already watch these tests, no great secret.

        • haha, foriegn power already watch these tests, no great secret.

          So then it's alright for Americans to watch and report on it for them? While Russia may have the satellite capability to watch Vandenberg I doubt, say, Uzbekistan does. They do, however, have Internet access. And now, thanks to the resourcefulness of one American, they know a lot more than they used to.

  • Funny (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Karamchand ( 607798 )
    It says There are three primary factors affecting visibility but then it lists four reasons..!

    • Re:Funny (Score:2, Funny)

      by daniil ( 775990 ) *
      "The primary factor affecting visibility is vehicle trajectory and two,...two primary factors affecting visibility are vehicle trajectory, lighting conditions and...three. Three primary factors, which are vehicle trajectory, lighting conditions, launch vehicle type and atmo...no.Among the factors affecting visibility..." etc.

      (You can proceed to mod this lame joke down now)

    • Actually, there are five, he forgot "Cloaking Device".

  • A Vivid Memory (Score:1, Interesting)

    by HenryKoren ( 735064 )
    Purely by luck; I was on an Amtrak train between San Luis Obispo and San Diego when I witnessed a rocket launching out of Vandenburg.

    Not something you see every day!!
  • Now let's all watch the big signs:

    FBI takes site offline in 3... 2... 1...

    (...or was it just the Slashdot Effect?)
    • They'd like you to THINK it was the /. effect.
    • It's only the /. effect we assure you. Please forward any further inquiries along with your street address and SSN to the mangement at siteadmin@notagovermentagency.langley.gov

      Thank you
    • Hi: Actually, the government and I have talked about what they're comfortable with me publishing. I santitize what I post and I don't publish information on military launches until the DoD releases it about 36-hours before lift-off. Some of my biggest fans are people who support the launches. They like to use my site to get an idea of what's coming up and the status of pending launches (yes, they should have a better source of this info than my site). I've been covering Vandenberg AFB launches as a repor

  • Can see launches from Phoenix, AZ (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:27PM (#10158540)
    I've lived in Phoenix for 30 years and have seen
    quite a few of these launches.. can't actually
    see the rocket, but you can see the aftermath.

    Sometimes, depending on the lighting, you get a
    lot of colors in the plume.

    If you live in Phoenix and see strange looking
    'clouds' that look like a snake due West, it's
    probably a launch.
  • I grew up in Camarillo and we could see these from our backyard. The trails were always purple and blue. It was exciting....
    • I grew up in Camarillo and we could see these from our backyard.
      Hell, I grew up in Lompoc [tinyurl.com]. Atlas launches used to shake dishes off the shelves. It was annoying...

  • Good info, but not complete (Score:5, Informative)

    by Rorschach1 ( 174480 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:29PM (#10158547) Homepage
    There are actually a few good viewing sites on or around the base that are accessible to the general public, including the viewing stands at the base weather station.

    I run the website that hosts the official base launch schedule (http://mocc.vandenberg.af.mil), and I've tried a number of times to get Public Affairs to compile - or allow me to compile - a list of these sites and related information, but I haven't had any luck so far. I get email from people all the time asking about this, and usually all I can do is direct them to Brian's page.

    The commercial launch operators are usually pretty good about releasing information on launch schedules, payloads, and so on. The military is understandably more restrained, and you won't even see all of the military launches listed on the schedule. They are generally listed on a number of sites like Brian's, though.

    Now, before anyone starts freaking out about classified information, it should be noted that even the classified launches have an unclassified launch window published. There's simply no way to keep such an operation secret. The real launch window, though, is often classified. For example, a launch might have a published 8-hour window, even though the real window could be a few minutes or less. (For the record, I don't deal with classified schedules. Even when I'm spending the night working launch support, I often don't know the exact launch time until I hear the countdown on the radio.)

    If you're ever in the area for a Delta or Atlas launch especially, it's worth watching. Of course, they're even cooler to watch when they blow up. Liquid-fuelled rockets turn into huge fireballs, and solid-fuelled rockets fragment into thousands of little tiny shooting stars of burning fuel. And then they start thousands of little brush fires if they're low enough, which isn't so cool.
    • As a local I have watched many launches from VAFB. Of course the boosters are far more reliable now. Back in the 60's we experienced 25% failure rates.

      One of my favorite viewing sites is atop "Harris Grade" behind Vandenberg Village (it's open to the public). You not only get a great view of the launch but also get to hear the sound, which supplements the experience.
      • Hey, that's a good spot I didnt even think of, which is funny because I often took my sportbike up that road. I think there's a launch in September, so I'll have to check it out. I'm there for Space and Missile training. Kinda funny to see a /. article on it while I'm there.

  • first? no (Score:3, Interesting)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportland AT yahoo DOT com> on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:30PM (#10158554) Homepage Journal
    There have been many articles written about this, and som,e groups have tracked them for years. I remember my grandfather knowing when a launch was likely in the 70's.

    I also remember seeing a lot of missles flying through the air. The best was when they would do a dusk launch of something that would seperate a stage.

  • I live there, watching the launches are fun (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Serveert ( 102805 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:35PM (#10158573)
    Sure the missiles are not effective but it's fun when the big ones go off. The town thunders and your chest vibrates. We grab a beer and chill with the neighbors and take in the spectable. They inform you of the launch only that day so if you can catch it it's fun for the family. Too many times I've slept through them, which is a pity. They're beautiful.
    • Rather than just fly off the handle with assumptions, I'll ask what "not effective" means. Are the satellites not achieving orbit? Are the ICBM RVs not making it to Kwaj? Usually? ;)
      • Well, the anti ballistic missiles aren't effective against decoys. So if China sends over 500 missiles and only 2-3 of them have the actual warhead then we've just wasted billions of dollars.
        • Ah, gotcha. Now I can feel free to split hairs. Most of the rockets out of Vandenberg are satellite launches. Many are randomly selected ICBMs from the arsenal to see how well they're aging, and give the launch crews some practice. A few are targets for the ABM test launches out on Kwaj, about 1000 miles southwest of me. So, none of the launches you're watching are ineffective, unless they go into the drink before their time.

          As for ABMs themselves, to say they're ineffective against decoys broadbrushes the

    • If there is a big enough rumble to make your chest vibrate, do you have to open the beer before the launch so it isn't shaken up?
  • Anonymous Coward writes ... Regards, Brian Webb"

    D'oh! I guess you're not very anonymous anymore, are you Brian?
  • VBAFB has some of the most beautiful launches. The fact that it's near the coast leads to amazing photos as the missles go out over the ocean.

  • JC (Score:2)

    by Espectr0 ( 577637 )
    I take it that JC Denton [deusexgaming.com] hasn't liberated the base yet by bringing the security bots back online

  • I grew up watching nukes blast off from VAFB (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ahfoo ( 223186 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:02PM (#10158662) Journal
    Any Orcutteers out there on Slashdot?
    Hope not.
    What a scarry place. I think almost everybody I grew up with had a serious drug problem. The missles were very much related to the immense sense of doom among my childhood friends. An astonishing number of them died quite young despite the fact it's a fairly affluent area. There was just an enormous amount of self destruction.
    Of course that really gloomy stuff didn't really emerge until the teen years. But I mean if you follow it back to the younger years you see the connection. I mean we'd talk about it openly, how we were all going to die anyway. We'd be out on the playground and at least once a week there would be this huge rumbling and then the trail of smoke that grew thicker and thicker as it dispersed into the atmosphere making crazy curves winding into the sky. It was quite pretty.
    I recall once we had a misfire that sprayed rocket fuel all over an area between us and the base and it was a big hazmat emergency where everybody got paid overtime to pretend to be doing something. Other than that, nothing ever really came of the missles directly. But indirectly, it had an enormous impact on that community.
    It's funny going back and seeing people spending a half million bucks to live there and thinking it's really great, especially the ones who sort of migrated in from the South or the Midwest. They're always really enthused about it. But those missles do leave an impression on you if you start off with it as a child. It sort of keeps mortality in your mind all the time. You have to grow up quick. After all, you might not be here tomorrow.
    • My mom told me about how she used to watch the nuculear (ok, i misspelled that bad) bomb tests out in nevada, and how her dad( who took her out there) loved to watch them go off, but it left her with such a feeling of dread, even as a 6 year old child.
      oh, did i mention they watched them all from sacramento, even though it was over 400 miles from the test sight, she said it made the night sky glow when it went off.

  • I saw the IRAS launch from Pasadena (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MichaelCrawford ( 610140 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:13PM (#10158725) Homepage Journal
    When I was a freshman at Caltech in 1982, in Pasadena, California, next to Los Angeles, I saw the launch of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite from atop one of the campus buildings.

    If you look up Pasadena and Vandenburg on Yahoo Maps [yahoo.com] you'll see they are quite far apart, yet still we got an exciting view.

    It was quite cool, not just because of the launch itself but because one of the project scientists was a Caltech professor who had recently given a talk on IRAS to one of my physics classes. We knew when it would launch, and knew all about what was being launched and what it would be expected to accomplish.

    Also quite cool was that it was a night launch, so we saw this glowing dot rise up, accellerating, against the night sky, that was strikingly visible even against the glow of all of LA's light pollution.

    In the summer of '85 I saw another launch, watching from Rosemead, near Pasadena. I don't recall what the project was called, but it was an atmospheric science experiment in which they launched a rocket into the ionosphere and blew up a bunch of sodium, blasting sodium vapor across a wide swath of the sky. The electrically excited sodium glowed a ghostly yellow in an expanding ball that slowly faded as it grew.

  • Vandenberg launches are fun to watch (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Thagg ( 9904 ) <thadbeier@gmail.com> on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:15PM (#10158731) Journal
    I watch as many as I can, they're pretty easy to see from Los Angeles, on a clear day (and most of them are!)

    I've seen the Delta II launch of both Ikonos and Gravity Probe B. Both of these were daylight launches, and would have been impossible to see if they didn't have extremely tight (and nicely publicized by Aviation Week) launch windows. If you know where to look, they're quite nice to see. The arc of the rocket as it bends over and smoothly accelerates to the south is math in motion, just beautiful.

    I've also watched a couple of the Minuteman launches testing missle defense systems. Again, these were well publicized events. On my street in Calabasas for the last one, everybody was out in their lawn chairs waiting for it. It did not disappoint. Compared to a satellite launch, the Minuteman gets out of the atmosphere in a hurry, and the solid fuel exhaust blooms into a huge flower-shaped colorful cloud once it is in space.

    Still, it's basically impossible for me to see the beauty in a Minuteman launch. It's a goddamn ICBM, its only purpose to kill millions of people.

    Any you idiots picking on the maintainer of the site -- get real. Read the site, there is absolutely nothing there than any third-grader couldn't figure out with ten minutes, a road atlas and a blunt crayon. There are a few other good Vandenberg launch sites out there, too, like
    this one [af.mil]

    I've fantasized about burying a cellphone near Vandenberg, and set it up to call me when it feels the vibration of a launch. It'd be cool, cheap, and easy. Obviously the solar charger and antenna would have to be above ground. The problem with most Vandenberg launches is that you don't know when they are going to happen -- but if you knew they were firing you could just step outside and see.

    Thad Beier

  • Vandenberg AFB Missile Launches

    I read that headline, thought it was a man-on-the-ground eyewitness report, and wondered: a missile's just been launched, pointed where?

    b&

  • JAG (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Gary Destruction ( 683101 ) *
    The TV show JAG had an episode where there was a launch to repair a satellite in orbit. The launch was at Vandenberg AFB. Harm and Meg investigate the death of an astronaut and uncover a plot to sabotage a shuttle mission [onscreen-credits.com]
    • I know your post is modded off topic, but it's not really that far off. There was a beautiful launch pad built at Vandenberg AFB, called SLC-6 ("SLICK6"). However its never been used. There are two unofficial reasons, and the tin foil hats have a 3rd. The pad was an alternate in case the shuttle couldn't launch from Cape Canaveral, and also from back when it was envisioned we'd be putting up one a month. Digressing a bit, there was a point in time where all US DoD satellites were to be "Shuttle compati
  • When i first glanced at the headline in my newsreader, the words "missile launch" made me look twice...
  • Whether publicized on their own web page or not, this is very bad OpSec. Just because it's something that's widely visible, doesn't mean that it should be so widely discussed. If some one is taking pictures and recording info about the flights in and out of Offutt AFB, suspicions are raised.
    • Granted, it's crappy opsec, but there's nothing to be done about the fact that a major spaceport is run next to a metro area of 20mil, and this ain't the PRC. Due to the location, the USAF has published mariner's and aviator's alerts for years. As another post pointed out, the exact launch window isn't bandied about.
    • Hi: The folks at the base and the Western Test Range know about my web site and have had kind words about it. Regarding OPSEC, I've spoken with the "right people" at the base about my site and what info they're comfortable with me posting. I try to balance my freedom of speech with my responsibility to use discretion regarding what I post. Regards, Brian W.
  • You know, what this thread REALLY needs is ANOTHER political soapbox joke about mistaking this guys hobby for terrorist activities, since the US government obvious arrests people EVERYDAY by the TRUCKLOADS for that very reason. Heck, my Dad was taken off the street last night by some machinegun wielding MiBs for photographing the Statue of Liberty and tortured at length until he admitted his murderous intent, where upon he signed a confession and awaits trial next month.

    God, what I wouldn't give for the ol
  • Yesterday upon the stair I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today -- I think he's from the CIA.

  • See the launch sites. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Hans Lehmann ( 571625 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @06:55PM (#10159336)
    If you get a chance, take a ride on the Amtrak Coast Starlight (for non-USA'ns, Amtrak manages what is left of the American passenger train service.) Do it while you can, there's been talk lately of eliminating this money-losing route. The track runs along the beach for much of its route, including the section through Vandenberg Air Force Base. There aren't any public roads through this section of the California coast, so this is the only way to see it without getting a visitor pass to the base. As you go whizzing by, you'll see not just some launch pads, but also the gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building, similar to the one NASA has in Florida. Built in the early days of the shuttle program, but then mothballed in favor of the Florida facility.
    • ... but also the gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building, similar to the one NASA has in Florida. Built in the early days of the shuttle program, but then mothballed in favor of the Florida facility.

      I've been there, and have often been amazed to think of the amount of money that went into creating that huge shuttle-launch complex which in the end was entirely useless, and probably always will be.

  • Very cool post!. But you do not mention the vehicle and (secret) missions of greatest interest: those launched by the Titan IVA-B. They are launched out of Vandenberg at the rate of 1 or 2 a year. They typically launch huge spacecraft into polar orbits. With the big solid boosters and the ability of the core stage to yaw radically it must put on quite a show.

    • As far as I know, the Titan IV is history. The last one went out of VAFB a few years ago (if you wanted to confirm this, go to www.spacearchive.info/vafblog.htm). The heavy lift role is being taken over by newer vehicles. The Titan IV put on an awesome show.

      Regards,

      Brian W.
  • So.. if I were to post an Ask Slashdot about how to muffle the sound of these missiles so I don't awake to pant-browning-thunder at 1 am in the morning, would it make it or would I be rejected so somebody can ask how to do something needlessly difficult using an iPod and a PocketPC?

  • why you don't much info about launches (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In the 70s my dad was stationed at Vandenberg AFB. He worked as a cable monkey running wire in the tunnels that connect the launch sites with the control room. He knew the days when they were going to do test launches so one launch he went out to the beach in Lompoc with some of his friends to photograph the launch. He was stopped by MPs and they took his film. This is probably why you don't see much info about the launches.

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