Space Force requests proposals for new Vandenberg launchpad for heavy and super-heavy rockets
The Space Force on December 29, 2025 released a request for information (RFI) from the private sector for building a new launchpad at the southern-most tip of Vandenberg Space Force Base, for use by “new” heavy and super-heavy rockets.
The Space Force said it prefers to use the site for new vehicles rather than ones that already have launch sites at Vandenberg, to “increase launch diversity” at the base. The service is also interested in vehicles with “unique capabilities,” such as point-to-point transportation or the ability to return payloads.
The RFI emphasizes the need for “technically mature” vehicles capable of operating from SLC-14 within five years of signing a lease agreement. Companies must also provide details about their operations to address safety concerns and minimize impacts on other launch operators at the base.
You can read the actual RFI here. The map to the right, taken from the RFI and annotated to post here, labels the area under consideration as “Sudden Flats”. SpaceX’s two launchpads are indicated, with SLC-6 presently under development.
Though the description of the request appears to favor SpaceX, it could also apply to Blue Origin’s New Glenn as well as the company’s proposed larger versions of that rocket.
The request asks for proposals within 30 days.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"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
The Space Force on December 29, 2025 released a request for information (RFI) from the private sector for building a new launchpad at the southern-most tip of Vandenberg Space Force Base, for use by “new” heavy and super-heavy rockets.
The Space Force said it prefers to use the site for new vehicles rather than ones that already have launch sites at Vandenberg, to “increase launch diversity” at the base. The service is also interested in vehicles with “unique capabilities,” such as point-to-point transportation or the ability to return payloads.
The RFI emphasizes the need for “technically mature” vehicles capable of operating from SLC-14 within five years of signing a lease agreement. Companies must also provide details about their operations to address safety concerns and minimize impacts on other launch operators at the base.
You can read the actual RFI here. The map to the right, taken from the RFI and annotated to post here, labels the area under consideration as “Sudden Flats”. SpaceX’s two launchpads are indicated, with SLC-6 presently under development.
Though the description of the request appears to favor SpaceX, it could also apply to Blue Origin’s New Glenn as well as the company’s proposed larger versions of that rocket.
The request asks for proposals within 30 days.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"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
They might as well have just sent the RFI to SpaceX and Blue Origin HQs directly by special courier. This is so obviously directed at (and only at) these two companies.
And SpaceX is the more likely winner here as it is, as BO already has a pad at Vandy leased (SLC-9) (albeit, not built yet), and it seems a bit hard to believe they’ll be needing a second pad at the Western Range….though I can’t rule out that perhaps they might want to shell out for a pad exclusively devoted to the New Glenn 9×4 variant.
It will take 3-5 years to develop that site, so long as there are no lawsuits from the NIMBYies. Major upgrades to infrastructure are needed to the base as a whole now and more will be needed if SLC-14 goes ahead. Plus as a note, there are three other smaller SLCs that are not being used.
Very glad to see Space Force being pro-HLLV.
The Coastal Commission is going crazy at this very moment.
SpaceX would have it operational in 6 months if they bid and won the contract.
Bechtel, on the other hand…
Richard M,
I’ll certainly root for a Starship pad at Vandy. The only way I’d ever get to see a Starship launch live is if that comes to pass. But a New Glenn pad there would be very nice also.
“Sudden Flats” sounds like a place you wouldn’t want to drive on.
Jay,
There are NIMBYs everywhere. They’ll squawk as usual, but the Space Force will do what it must.
Agree that hosting either or both New Glenn and Starship at Vandy will call for major infrastructure upgrades. SpaceX will need air separation and natural gas liquefaction/refining capability – at scale – and BO will need air-sep plus a plant to produce hydrogen from natural gas. Both rockets will also require major hangar structures and big tank farms.
Those small SLCs at Vandy might get taken over by some of the smaller launch vehicle outfits coming up – Stoke, for instance. One of those small pads that gets used very infrequently by NorGrum to launch Minotaurs has so much obsolete bits of stuff from previous users lying around that it looks like the aerospace equivalent of a hillbilly’s front yard. Getting a new tenant who would tidy the place up would be a definite plus.
Jerry Greenwood,
One of the things I most enjoy about announcements like this is how it makes all of the right peoples’ heads explode. I can practically hear Coastal Commission crania detonating now.
Even SpaceX might need a year or more to put in a complete Starship complex at Vandy. Still, I’d bet on seeing Starships launching from there well before any New Glenns do likewise.
P.S. Turns out that I was not quite correct about Blue Origin’s status at Vandy’s SLC-9. Jeff Foust just updated his SN article with a clarification from the Space Force: “There were environmental reviews for a proposed SLC-9 for Blue Origin’s New Glenn, although a Vandenberg Space Force Base spokesperson said Dec. 31 that no lease has been issued to Blue Origin.”
So right now, at least, Blue Origin has no formal presence at Vandenberg. Yet.
Hello Dick,
Yeah….it obviously will take some time for SpaceX to bring a Starship operation online at this location even if the administration greases the regulatory and lawfare skids for ’em, so….this is not a quick option for their Starship plans. But it’s hard to think they wouldn’t want to pursue it, and one can’t help the suspicion that this RFI is the direct result of background discussions between SpaceX and the Space Force about possibilities for Starship at Vandy.
Starlink V3 deployments will need sun-synchronous orbits*, after all….and most likely, so will any AI data centers they decide to pursue. Better start working on it now!
___
* Honestly, Vandenberg is probably the only place in the entire United States suitable for a sun-synchronous Starship launch facility. Any other possibility I can think of would have far more difficulties.
Question: would SpaceX also build a dedicated StarFactory on site if they pursue a launch pad at this site? Or would they barge in Starships from Texas and Florida? Or….barge them in for some initial time frame and only pursue a Star Factory later, as the program ramps up in the 2030’s? A StarFactory is no small undertaking, after all, and they have their hands full in Texas and Florida as it is right now.
But i’m sure that Elon and his people have given serious thought to this question already.
Regarding the need for sun-synchronous launch capability for Starlink, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more discussion about the fact that with a fully reusable launch system like Starship, you can launch from non-coastal locations with ease. You could launch north out of St. Louis or Omaha, and there will be almost nothing on the ground track clear to the Pole.
Speaking of Starship.
Lots have been made of agile vs waterfall.
I wonder if a combination of the two would be helpful.
The fastest iterating flying machines are drone programs like this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wRZs6JOvZ2U
Now I am reminded by the UNILEVER TED talk.
Having more virtual iterations might mean less Starship failures. Yes, not everything scales well–so of course there will still need to be large scale tests–but perhaps with less hardware loss.
Falcon was much further ahead by this point.
Richard M,
My guess is that SpaceX would probably prefer not to build a StarFactory at Vandy based on an aversion to building additional optional infrastructure in CA. But I could be wrong. Tesla is still expanding operations at Fremont after all, so never say never.
The one thing that might preclude such a move would be just the sheer amount of real estate required. Vandy isn’t all that large and I would think SpaceX would want to keep roughly the same 2-mi. distance between production and launch infrastructure as they’ve got at Starbase. But maybe just building a really big-ass blast wall between the two would suffice if things needed to be cozier. And a third StarFactory would certainly have it uses given SpaceX’s plans to both industrialize the Moon and settle Mars.
Whatever befalls, we likely won’t have to wait any too long to find out what’s going to be what.