The 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is the Air Force Space Command organization responsible for all Department of Defense space and missile launch activities on the West Coast. All U.S. satellites destined for near polar orbit are launched from Vandenberg.

The wing supports West Coast launch activities for the Air Force, Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and various private industry contractors. The wing launches a variety of expendable vehicles including the Delta II, Pegasus, Taurus, Atlas, Titan II and Titan IV. The wing also supports Force Development and Evaluation of all intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The space wing is composed of four groups that report to the wing commander. Those groups include the 30th Operations Group, 30th Maintenance Group, 30th Medical Group and 30th Mission Support Group. The wing commander's staff is made up of agencies that include safety, public affairs, manpower, plans and others.

The 30th Operations Group operates the Western Range and conducts space and missile launch operations. The Western Range, operated and maintained by the 30th Range Squadron, is a vast tracking, telemetry and command complex whose boundary begins along Vandenberg's California coastline and extends westward across the Pacific Ocean. The range consists of electronic and optical tracking systems located along the Pacific Coast that collect and process launch-related data for a variety of users. The 2nd Space Launch Squadron is responsible for all space lift operations.

The 30th Mission Support Group provides support services to Air Force Space Command's largest base. Vandenberg covers 98,500 acres, has more than 2,000 family housing units and approximately 3,000 buildings providing support to more than 18,000 people (military members and their families, retirees, civilians and contractors). The support group provides security police; civil engineering; services and personnel support.

The 30th Medical Group provides medical, dental, bio-environmental and public health services for people assigned to Vandenberg Air Force Base, their families and retirees in the local area.

The 30th Maintenance Group provides supply, contracting, communication and transportation support for the 30th Space Wing launch mission. The group's 30th Transportation Squadron operates a fleet of more than 1,000 vehicles and the 30th Contracting Squadron handles approximately $260 million in new contracting starts annually with more than $55 million of that amount in construction.

Major units at Vandenberg include: 14th Air Force, 576th Flight Test Squadron, 381st Training Group, and Detachment 9 of the Space and Missile Systems Center.