VANDENBERG

A Tour of the Air Force Base and its Civil Engineering Projects

By Jordan Gamble

May 17, 2011

As the mishmash of students from Cal Poly stumble out from the bus, all eyes are turned upward in awe as they finally come face to face with the reality of the launch tower. It’s big! I mean really big! Image looking up at a tower over 230 feet and weighing more than 8.5 million pounds; now imagine standing at the top, leaning over a rusted railing, looking down hundreds of feet into the flame ducts of the launch pad. Most of the students were probably thinking, “No way! This is so cool!”.

Vandenberg Air Force Base was originally built to handle the space shuttle program but after the challenger disaster in 1986 the program fell apart and was lost in history. However, after many renovations and lots of reconstruction, the first Delta IV launch took place in 2006, marking the beginning of the most successful space and missile program on the west coast which continues today.

As a student in IME 223, I had the opportunity to see firsthand the work of the government on a project whose scale and magnitude dwarfed my wildest imagination. Although I must give credit to the management and logistical planning that has gone into this program I could not avoid noticing the inefficiency in many of the projects aspects. Our tour guide told us of the bureaucracy and complicated paperwork involved for any Air Force project due to safety precautions and regulations. In some cases this has tripled the cost of the project from what it would cost normally. Other inefficiencies were caused by inventory delay and excess storage of old parts and inventory. It may be a perfect opportunity for industrial engineers to cut costs and improve productivity for the government projects.

This tour was fun, inspiring and educational as to all the aspects of engineering that is involved in the space program at Vandenberg Air Force Base.