Lompoc–Surf station

Surf is an unincorporated area of Santa Barbara County, California, located along the Pacific coast within a publicly accessible area of Vandenberg Space Force Base west of the city of Lompoc. The site originally was established as a railroad town, with its growth peaking after Vandenberg was established in 1941. Since 2000 the site has just consisted of Surf Beach and the unstaffed Lompoc–Surf Amtrak Station. California State Route 246 used to run to Surf, but in 1984 the highway was truncated at Lompoc and the road from Lompoc to Surf is designated West Ocean Avenue. Sections of Surf Beach are closed between March 1 and September 30 every year during the nesting season of the western snowy plover. The affected areas may be opened earlier than September 30 if all the newly hatched birds reach their fledgling stage beforehand. The closures are in place to protect the bird under the Endangered Species Act. If a set number of trespass violations have been reached during any nesting season (currently 50), the beach is closed entirely.

The Santa Ynez River is one of the largest rivers on the Central Coast of California. It is 92 miles (148 km) long, flowing from east to west through the Santa Ynez Valley, reaching the Pacific Ocean at Surf, near Vandenberg Space Force Base and the city of Lompoc. The river drains the north slope of the Santa Ynez Mountains, the south slope of the San Rafael Mountains, as well as much of the southern half of Santa Barbara County. Its drainage basin is 896 square miles (2,320 km2) in area. The river's flow is highly variable. It usually dries up almost completely in the summer, but can become a raging torrent in the winter. The river has three dams which can impound a total of 210,000 acre-feet (260,000,000 m3) of water in wet years.

Sibyl Marston was a wooden schooner cargo ship built by W. A. Boole & Son of Oakland, California and belonging to the Sibyl Marston Co. Sibyl Marston sank off the coast of Lompoc, California on 12 January 1909.

USS Charles (ID-1298) was a troop transport that served in the United States Navy from 1918 to 1920 and was briefly in commission as USS Harvard in 1918 and 1920. She was better known in her role as passenger liner SS Harvard, one of the premier West Coast steamships operated by the Los Angeles Steamship Company.

Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4) is a launch and landing site at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, U.S. It has two pads, both of which are used by SpaceX for Falcon 9, one for launch operations, and other as Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) for SpaceX landings. The complex was previously used by Atlas and Titan rockets between 1963 and 2005. It consisted of two launch pads, SLC-4W and SLC-4E, which were formerly designated PALC-2-3 and PALC-2-4 respectively. Both pads were built for use by Atlas-Agena rockets, but were later rebuilt to handle Titan rockets. The designation SLC-4 was applied at the time of the conversion to launch Titan launch vehicles.Both pads at Space Launch Complex 4 are currently leased by SpaceX. SLC-4E is leased as a launch site for the Falcon 9 rocket, which first flew from Vandenberg on 29 September 2013, following a 24-month refurbishment program which had started in early 2011. SpaceX began a five-year lease of Launch Complex 4 West in February 2015 in order to use that area as a landing pad to bring back VTVL return-to-launch-site (RTLS) first-stage boosters of the reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle. That pad was later named by SpaceX as Landing Zone 4 and first used operationally for a Falcon 9 booster landing in 2018.

Rancho Lompoc was a 42,085-acre (170.31 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Barbara County, California given in 1837 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Joaquín Carrillo and José Antonio Carrillo. The grant extended from present-day Lompoc west to the Pacific coast.

Point Arguello (Spanish: Punta Argüello) is a headland on the Gaviota Coast, in Santa Barbara County, California, near the city of Lompoc. The area was first used by the United States Navy in 1959 for the launch of military and sounding rockets. It was transferred to the United States Air Force in 1964, at which time it became part of Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Honda was a remote and sparsely populated rural district in the vicinity of Cañada Honda Creek in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. The area produced sweet peas and beans, and supported dairy farms. A newspaper account of 1947 stated, "The Jesus Maria rancho, Packard rancho, Bear Creek ranch, Honda section, and a large area in the lower [Lompoc] valley once yielded great crops of cattle and produce and furnished a livelihood for many families." The area is now part of Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Space Launch Complex 5 (SLC-5) was a launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, United States. It was previously part of the Point Arguello Naval Air Station, during which time it was designated Launch Complex D or LC-D. Constructed in 1961, it was used by 69 Scout launch vehicles between 1962 and 1994. Satellites launched from the complex included Transit, OV3, Explorer and P35 (DMSP) spacecraft. Most of the satellites launched from SLC-5 were placed into low Earth orbits, or low medium Earth orbits. As of 2009*, the complex is still standing, however the U.S. Air Force is considering demolishing it to salvage parts. If the complex is dismantled, there are plans to produce a Historic American Engineering Record of the site, and to preserve the tower.

The Canyon Fire was a wildfire that burned on Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California during September 2016. By the time the fire was contained on September 24, it had burned 12,742 acres (51.6 km2) of land. Due to the nature of the activities that take place on the Base, there were a number of unique challenges posed during the fire including the presence of potentially hazardous materials.

USS Fuller (DD-297) was a Clemson-class destroyer built for the United States Navy during World War I.

The Honda Point disaster was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships in U.S. history. On the evening of September 8, 1923, seven destroyers, while traveling at 20 knots (37 km/h), ran aground at Honda Point (also known as Point Pedernales; the cliffs just off-shore called Devil's Jaw), a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel off Point Arguello on the Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County, California. Two other ships grounded, but were able to maneuver free off the rocks. Twenty-three sailors died in the disaster.