Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3

Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3

Space Launch Complex 3 (SLC-3) is a launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base that has been used by Atlas and Thor rockets. It was built in the early 1960s and consists of two pads, SLC-3E (East) and SLC-3W (West). The East-West coastline at Vandenberg allows SLC-3 to launch over-ocean polar trajectories that avoid landfall until passing over Antarctica. By contrast, Cape Canaveral has a North-South coastline permitting over-ocean launches into standard orbits.

Read more about Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3:  SLC-3E, SLC-3W

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