West Coast Falcon Heavy launches coming as soon as next year

The Space Force approved SpaceX’s request to increase its launch rate at Vandenberg Air Force Base and add a second launch site, SLC-6. This new pad will feature the ability to launch both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, the latter being a first for California.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket debuted back in 2018, and until now, the only pad designed for it was LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. That is set to change with the Air Force finishing its environmental impact statement for SpaceX’s proposed launch increase from Vandenberg.

The proposal will increase SpaceX’s expected launches from the West Coast of the US from 50 to 95 and activate SLC-6 as the company’s fourth Falcon launch pad. While the state previously denied SpaceX’s increase due to environmental concerns, the Air Force determined the national security benefits of such an increase superseded any potential downsides.

SLC-6 started life as the future home of West Coast Space Shuttle launches for the Department of Defense. The original idea was that NASA and the DoD would have their own fleets of shuttles and astronauts to fly them. The loss of Challenger and rising costs to the program led to the cancellation of that idea; however, it left us a nearly finished launch site in the California mountains.

United Launch Alliance took over the pad to launch its Delta IV rockets and saw dozens of launches from the pad. With the rocket’s West Coast retirement in 2022, SpaceX took over the lease with plans to retrofit it for Falcon 9 and Heavy launches. SpaceX also took over ULA’s East Coast Delta IV launch site, SLC-37, after the final launch in 2024.

The approved plan by SpaceX states that launches at SLC-6 could begin next year, with a ramp-up of more launches of the once king of SpaceX rockets in 2027. In total, SpaceX expects to launch as many as five Falcon Heavies a year from Vandenberg.

However, it’s important to note that SpaceX set expectations for Falcon Heavy launches from the East Coast; however, most of those missions now fly on the Falcon 9 instead.