A draft environmental impact report reveals plans to demolish several space-shuttle era structures as SpaceX gets set to add a second launch facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base. 

Details of the plans were included in the draft environmental document released last month and as SpaceX continues its fast pace at its only West Coast launch facility.

That current Falcon 9 facility, Space Launch Complex-4, saw another launch occur at 7:20 a.m. Sunday to deliver 26 Starlink satellites into orbit. The first-stage booster landed on the droneship in the Pacific Ocean after completing its seventh flight and return.

Sunday’s launch marked the 23rd Falcon flight from Vandenberg in 2025, with number 24 possibly occurring the same week as public hearings related to the expansion plans.

As SpaceX looks to add a second launch site, an environmental document revealed details about the firm’s plans to transform the storied Space Launch Complex-6, which sits tucked into a valley on South Base and isn’t visible from the Lompoc Valley. 

Work to ready SLC-6 for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket would span 18 months and start as soon as later this year, according to the report. 

Four existing structures — mobile service tower, mobile assembly shelter, fixed umbilical tower, and lift and pit crown — would be demolished. 

The behemoth structures stand as hallmarks of SLC-6 and its storied history as the site for the Air Force’s West Coast space shuttle program. Following the Challenger explosion in 1986, the axe fell on the West Coast program before any shuttle launches occurred from Vandenberg.

The mobile service tower, once a common part of launch facilities, allows crews to complete work on the rocket but is rolled away from the vehicle ahead of launch. It’s typically been the distinctive feature designating the launch site.

A fixed umbilical tower provides key utilities such as power and air conditioning to keep the rocket and its payload healthy before liftoff.

The mobile assembly shelter stands out as a shuttle-unique structure and is recognizable by the humongous American flag on the sides.

The shuttle-era structures have remained in the decades after the program’s cancellation and during SLC-6’s most recent user, the United Launch Alliance Delta IV family of rockets.

SpaceX, like several other rocket manufacturers, employs an austere launch site approach, avoiding some of the headaches of keeping the metal structures free of corrosive rust and other maintenance challenges associated with being yards from the ocean. 

“Mechanical shears would be used to cut the building sections into manageable sizes. Cranes would be utilized in order to assist with any heavy lifts of the structure,” the draft report said. 

“Explosives would be used to remove the Mobile Service Tower during which four approximately 50-pound explosive charges would be detonated simultaneously. This would cause … a short impulsive sound, similar to those experienced during first stage landing events at SLC-4, but over a much smaller area,” the report said. 

Similar demolition occurred at SLC-4 East, formerly used for Titan IV rocket launches and now Falcon 9, plus SLC-4 West, once home to the Titan 2 program liftoffs and now the Falcon 9 landing site.

An excavator would be used to move the manageable pieces of the demolished structures to a dump truck to remove the remnants off the site.

To ready SLC-6 for Falcon rockets, SpaceX plans to construct various storage tanks including for rocket propellant known as RP-1 and liquid oxygen. 

The project also would include installing a vehicle erector to raise the rocket into horizontal to vertical position and adding a 200-foot-tall water tower on the east side of the complex.

Hearings Set for Expansion to SLC-6

As part of the 45-day public comment period on the Draft EIS, the Department of the Air Force will hold three in-person public hearings before the July 7 deadline.

In-person public hearings will occur from 5 to 8 p.m. on:

• Tuesday at Four Points by Sheraton/Ventura Harbor Resort, 1050 Schooner Drive, Ventura 
• Wednesday at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara
• Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1201 North H St., Lompoc

In-person public hearings will begin at 5 p.m., starting with an open-house information session to allow attendees to view informational posters, speak with project representatives, and sign up to provide an oral comment. 

The public hearing sessions will be called to order at 5:30 p.m. with the formal oral comment segment at 6 p.m. Speakers will have up to three minutes for their comment. 

Additionally, a virtual public hearing will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. June 18 with the Zoom link to be provided later. 

Written comments also can be submitted via an online form, available here, or through regular mail sent to ATTN: VSFB Falcon Launch EIS,  c/o ManTech International Corporation, 420 Stevens Ave., Suite 100, Solana Beach, CA 92075.

Documents and details about the process can be found on the website www.vsfbfalconlauncheis.com/.