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California & Space Force to encourage private launches at Vandenberg

Capitalism in space: The state government of California has signed an agreement with the U.S. Space Force to expand private launches facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base

It appears that the Space Force is aggressively trying to encourage new private launch operations to take flight out of Vandenberg. The article however is very unclear about exactly what this new agreement accomplishes. I could not find its actual text, and from the story all we get is typical government blather:

[Chris Dombrowski, acting director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development] said the organizations under the [agreement] will develop a “master plan that identifies the required infrastructure, human capital development, governance and financing necessary to support the United States Space Force mission and position California as a leader in the future of the commercial space industry.”

“This MOU serves as a critical investment in California’s innovative economy as we work to safely recover from the COVID-19 induced recession,” he said.

If anything, it appears that California’s Democratic and very power-hungry government is using this agreement to take control of any new private operations, so that it can dictate how they operate, according to its whims. If so, don’t expect much private enterprise to prosper at Vandenberg.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • Jay

    I thought Vandy (Vandenberg) could only launch into polar orbits? Kind of limited to just spy and communications satellites.

    A colleague of mine did some projects down there. Not much space for them to expand, Lompoc to the south and golf courses to the north. I definitely would not start or move a business to California.

  • Sayomara

    Interesting that spacex has almost completely pulled out of Vandenberg and its port of LA location its almost like Cal. isn’t overly friendly to private bussiness.

  • Ray

    the quicker spaces gets out of Ca the better

  • mkent

    This just looks like California’s equivalent to Space Florida. If that’s all it is, it’s no big deal and might actually be beneficial. It wouldn’t hurt to have Florida, California, Virginia, and Alaska all competing for launch business.

  • Edward

    From the California article:

    “We can quickly find ourselves back to where we were just a few weeks ago, a month ago, with significant increases if we do not maintain our vigilance,” Newsom said Monday. “Until we have a vaccine, we are going to be living with this virus.”

    What a goofball. How many decades did it take for us to eradicate small pox? How many other viruses and diseases have we eradicated? We are going to be living with this virus for a long, long time. These leaders are becoming tyrannical, promising that they can control nature. They thought that a century ago, too, when they thought they had an unsinkable ship. It never works out how they promise.

    Meanwhile, no one is worried about a second wave in Sweden, but they are practically promising one in California and other lockdown, shutdown, smackdown, Great Oppression states.

    I wonder how fast businesses can flee a state.

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