Point Arguello
Coordinates: 34 ° 37 ′ 0 ″ N , 120 ° 36 ′ 0 ″ W.
 
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Point Arguello rocket launch site and the drop zone over the Pacific |
Point Arguello is a headland on the Pacific coast of the US state of California , northwest of the city of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County . The US Air Force operates a rocket launch site at this location, which is now part of Vandenberg Air Force Base . The place is named after the former governor José Darío Argüello (1753-1828).
Military and sounding rockets have been launched from here since 1959 , at times under the direction of the US Navy . Point Arguello has six launch pads .
The site belonged to the US Army as Camp Cooke from 1941 . The larger, northern part went to the United States Air Force in June 1957 and was first called Cooke Air Force Base and from October 1958 Vandenberg Air Force Base . The smaller, southern part was transferred from the US Army to the US Navy in May 1958. This part was called the Naval Missile Facility at Point Arguello (NMFPA) part of the Pacific Missile Range (PMR), whose headquarters were further south in Point Mugu . Due to a restructuring of the US armed forces, the launch facilities were transferred to the US Air Force on July 1, 1964 and thus became part of Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The Point Arguello Western Air Drop Zone (WADZ) is named after Point Arguello . This is not, this is a conventional grid position, but an area in the Pacific, about 250 kilometers northwest of Point Arguello at 36 ° 0 ' N , 123 ° 0' W . Here Pegasus missiles are launched from carrier aircraft, with the aircraft taking off from Edwards Air Force Base . The first orbital launch from here occurred on April 5, 1990, when the two satellites SECS and Pegsat were launched into orbit.
Web links
- Point Arguello in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
- Point Arguello WADZ in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Vandenberg AFB: An Historical Overview. US Air Force, archived from the original on September 27, 2011 ; accessed on April 16, 2012 (English).
- ^ Dwayne Day: Vandenberg Air Force Base. October 26, 2011, accessed April 16, 2012 .