By Nora K. Wallace, News-Press Staff Writer (11/24/05)--Within the next decade, the Lompoc Valley could become home to a $100 million California Space Center, designed to attract tourists, educate people about space and provide an expansive viewing site for watching rockets and missiles blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The nascent proposal is being shepherded over myriad complex military hurdles by the Santa Maria-based California Space Authority. If funding and other approvals come through for the 66-acre site off Highway 1 near the base's main gate, hundreds of thousands of expected tourists will be able to view space-themed movies at an IMAX theater; sign up for tours of the 99,000-acre military complex; learn about the cultural history of the Chumash Indians and listen to music or view performances in a 5,000-seat amphitheater.
Several significant steps remain before the lofty plan can move forward. The site, on property that once housed an Air Force mobile home park, must be leased from the Air Force. Getting that done could take about 18 months. State, federal and private funding must be identified.
"Vandenberg is an absolute jewel for our state," said Janice Dunn, general counsel for the California Space Authority. "People haven't been able to talk about it for a long time (because of its classified mission). Now a lot of restrictions have been lifted. They want to tell their story. Vandenberg can't do this for themselves. We've taken this on ourselves."
Talk about the center began quietly last December, with monthly meetings attended by Air Force members, NASA and National Reconnaissance Office representatives, aerospace contractors and educators. Initially called the "Hawk's Nest," the envisioned California Space Center includes 350,000 square feet of facilities, parking for 2,500 vehicles and an amphitheater larger than the Santa Barbara Bowl.
"We're trying to scratch a lot of itches, but to do it in a reasonable way," Ms. Dunn explained.
While ideas for such a museum have been circulating since the early 1960s, around 1983 momentum began building in earnest. The West Coast space shuttle program was alive and bringing jobs to the region, so plans were announced for a $15 million Western Spaceport Museum and Science Center in the "Wye" area of town. The grandiose project was to house a museum, library, botanic gardens and IMAX theater. Then came the shuttle Challenger disaster, and the abandonment of a Vandenberg shuttle program. Even through tough economic times in the early 1990s, museum enthusiasts struggled to move the plan forward. But it never opened.
Backers of the current effort believe this effort will succeed. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a unanimous resolution supporting the plan, and agreed to support "all efforts to identify seed dollars for any and all aspects of the California Space Center by engaging personnel to investigate grants and legislative action that will secure necessary funding." The city of Lompoc passed a similar resolution, and Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, signed on, too.
There are several key components in the plan, Ms. Dunn said. A permanent launch viewing site long has been desired in the community -- those without base access must now drive to high points around the city to view launches. The Space Center's amphitheater would allow viewing and provide a venue for other informational programs. There will also be a specified area elaborating on the history of the Chumash people, whose ancestors lived on the property.
An IMAX theater would be a focal point, Ms. Dunn said. IMAX technology includes the use of large-format film projected on screens up to eight stories tall and 120 feet wide. The center would incorporate a meeting place for about 1,000 people.
Base tours would be offered, and instead of needing advance reservations, visitors could show up unannounced and board buses for tours that day. A "Rocket Park," with life-size rockets and missiles, would give visitors a sense of the size of the military hardware.
The center's advocates estimated the entire project could cost between $80 million to $100 million. It will not be completed, they believe, for 10 years. No large capital campaign is planned until the Air Force lease approval comes through, Ms. Dunn said, although funding is in mind. "We're making a quilt here. We're thinking of funding from every source you can think of," she said.
"It's a very, very positive thing," said Gene Stevens of the Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce. It's been estimated that such a complex could attract between 200,000 to 300,000 visitors annually. With tourists already coming to visit the community's murals and La Purisima State Historic Park, the new center would be "another shot in the arm" for the local economy, Mr. Stevens indicated. "It's absolutely a big thing for us," he said.
Kate Griffith, Lompoc's economic development director, spent several days recently at Kennedy Space Center with Delaware North officials. The California Space Center, she suggested, could emulate the Florida attraction, and offer programs like dining with astronauts. "With the increased population, with all the new housing going in and the increased visibility of Vandenberg, I have no doubt this area will become much more of a tourist magnet," she said. ";Lompoc already attracts folks, so why not add one more thing?"
Gen. Lance Lord, commander of Air Force Space Command in Colorado, called the idea "commendable," and said it would help further the military's efforts to emphasize space education and training.
CSA has enlisted some key partners. They include Delaware North Companies, operators of some of the nation's busiest tourist attractions -- including Yosemite and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The Santa Maria-based Diani Building Corp. is also on board, as are Westberg and White Architects and Planners, TetraTech, Space Information Laboratories and Townsend Public Affairs.
"A big issue is the education of young people, to have them in a position to enter in the space arena," said Ray Deutsch of Westberg and White, who has long been involved in CSA. "We are lacking in that. . . . Space education is really a central element of this."
Denny Anderson, executive director of the chamber, noted that "there's a tremendous fascination for what's going on at Vandenberg, and people want to know more about its history."
e-mail: nwallace@newspress.com COURTESY WESTBERG+WHITE INC. An artist's concept of the proposed $100 million California Space Center that may one day draw tourists to watch launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
More information on the California Space Center
