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.