http://news.newspress.com/topsports/101503vafb.htm
Vandenberg launch complex to disappear from horizon
10/15/03 [15 October 2003]
By NORA K. WALLACE
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
During the next few years, two of the most visible man-made landmarks on the
Lompoc Valley's horizon will slowly disappear.
With the expected launch today of the military's final Titan 2 rocket, Space
Launch Complex 4-West is no longer needed by Vandenberg Air Force Base. And in
two more years, the Titan 4 launch tower, Space Launch Complex 4-East, will
also be deemed obsolete.
The gigantic pads are paired 3,000 feet apart. Well over 100 feet tall, they
each sit monolithically on the western edge of the coastal base, and are the
most recognizable military features around the valley.
The space equivalent of skyscrapers stand out amid the relatively flat
landscape near the ocean, almost eight miles due west of downtown Lompoc.
"You look out there because that's where rockets are done," noted
Col. John Insprucker, Titan rocket program manager. "It's been there
since the early 1960s. Someday when you're driving by Vandenberg, you'll look
at that ridge line and realize SLC-4 isn't there anymore."
Because today is the final Titan 2 launch, work will begin first on
dismantling that launch site.
The pad, colloquially known as "Slick-4," historically was used for
the launching of Titan 2 rockets, while its counterpart lifted the classified
payloads aboard gigantic Titan 4 rockets.
For the next two years, Titan 2 rocket builder Lockheed Martin will take the
site through a process called "deactivation."
Workers will remove all its hazardous systems, and basically "Abandon the
Slick in place," according to Lt. Col. Dave Thompson, commander of
Vandenberg's 2nd Space Launch Squadron.
"We'll give Slick 4 West back to Santa Barbara County," Lt. Col.
Thompson said. "We'll return it to the environment."
Eventually, the 30th Space Wing will take over the project and essentially
tear down the tower. After the final Titan 4 rocket is launched in 2005, Space
Launch
Complex 4-East will also be demolished, said Richard Blakley, Lockheed
Martin's manager of business development for Titan programs.
The major work ahead is called "safing," or preparation for
demolition. Lt. Col. Kenneth Fischer, Space and Missile Center Titan close-out
manager, said that involves removing all the Titan 2 launch hardware, cleaning
and sealing items such as storage
tanks, and removing any toxic vessels.
Until the pads are removed, the area will appear to the casual observer
largely unchanged despite "the very significant precautionary measures
taken" to make sure it's safe, he explained.
The Titan 2's propellant systems have an estimated 132,000 pounds of stainless
steel, which will be removed after the launch to "ensure no adverse
environmental pollution," Lt. Col. Fischer said.
The county Air Pollution Control District, and possibly some other state
environmental agencies, will have a say in how Lockheed Martin and the Air
Force
are applying local regulations to the cleanup, said Peter Cantle, APCD's
general source division manager.
It will be a costly endeavor. Just to "safe" the site will cost
about $3 million for each launch pad, Lt. Col. Fischer said. To do that, and
dispose of all program support equipment, will cost about $26 million. That
doesn't include the cost of actually
demolishing the towers and other structures there, Lt. Col. Fischer explained.
On Tuesday, Lt. Col. Thompson projected the entire Titan dismantling project
could cost $40 million. The overall cost to dispose of all remaining Titan
program
equipment nationwide is estimated at $181 million, Lt. Col. Fischer said.
Taking down an entire launchpad is a relatively rare event. In January 2001,
the 140-foot-tall Space Launch Complex-3 West was demolished with a resounding
boom of explosives. Some old launch pads -- both at Vandenberg and Cape
Canaveral -- are deemed too historic to raze. At Vandenberg, Space Launch
Complex-10, a Thor launch site, is preserved as a
National Historic Landmark.
Col. Insprucker remembers spending time at SLC-4 West as a young first
lieutenant, and notes that thousands of aerospace and military employees have
worked on the
various Titan programs and launch pads. For them, he said, "This is the
last visible symbol of their work, other than the satellites flying
overhead."
"It's a sad thing," he said. "It's like seeing your childhood
home torn down, or the tree you swung on cut down or the local pool filled in.
It's a little bit of your life. Soon when you drive by, there will be nothing
there."
F.Y.I.
The nation's final Titan 2 rocket is scheduled to launch today between 9:17
and 9:28 a.m. from Space Launch Complex 4-West on Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Foggy skies could obscure the launch from view, but if the weather cooperates,
the rocket's ascent should be easily visible throughout the county.
-- NORA K. WALLACE
