Vandenberg Shuttle Flights May Be Delayed

The Air Force has no plans to write off its $2.8-billion California shuttle launch complex but the first West Coast flight could be delayed until the next decade in the wake of the Challenger disaster, officials said today.

Air Force planners are examining three options that range from a first launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the spring of 1988 to a first launch in the mid 1990s.

“No decision has been made,” said an Air Force official who spoke on condition he not be identified. But he said no plans are under discussion that include permanently mothballing the costly facility.

The problem centers on the availability of a replacement shuttle for Challenger, which was destroyed Jan. 28, and the requirement to launch heavy military payloads from Vandenberg, where spacecraft can be fired into orbits around Earth’s poles to provide complete reconnaissance coverage.

Populated Areas

That cannot be done from the Kennedy Space Center without launching shuttles over populated areas.

“There are some Vandenberg shuttle payloads that can be (shifted) to shuttle flights on the East Coast,” the Air Force official said. “However, the polar orbits that some Vandenberg payloads require cannot be achieved in any fashion by launching them out of the East Coast.”