Launch or test range · United States

Western Range

Recorded as: WESTERN RANGE

The U.S. Space Force launch range at Vandenberg, California. Its warnings define the hazard areas downrange of launches over the Pacific.

Launch and test ranges announce the sea areas that may be dangerous during a rocket launch, a missile test or the recovery of spent stages: where parts may fall, and in which time windows. Their warnings are among the most precisely defined in the archive — polygons with start and end times that cancel themselves when the last window closes.

What the archive holds

395 messages in this archive record WESTERN RANGE as their authority, issued from 2016-11-14 to 2024-04-12. None of them is in force in the latest lists we collected.

Exercises accounts for 154 of 395 recorded messages (39%), the largest warning type group in this selection.

Attributed to NAVAREAs, they fall mostly in NAVAREA XII (289) and NAVAREA IV (3).

Located messages lie in 6 sea areas, most often North Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean.

The largest yearly count is 2022, with 81 messages. Collection is incomplete between 2024-05 and 2026-08-17, so those years are not comparable.

Across all years its messages are issued most often in September and least often in June.

They reached this archive through NAVAREA XII (289), HYDROPAC (93), HYDROLANT (10) and NAVAREA IV (3).

Messages by year of issue

'16

'17

'18

'19

'20

'21

'22

'23

'24

By month of issue, all years

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Warning types

Where

NAVAREA XII 289 · NAVAREA IV 3

Most recently issued

Earliest in the archive

NAVAREA XII 417/16 · Missiles · North Pacific Ocean2016-11-14
Hazardous operations 0610Z to 1355Z daily 19 thru 22 nov in areas bound by: a. 34-19N 124-45W, 34-40N…

Other launch or test ranges in NAVAREA XII

Counts are messages recording this issuer as their authority, recounted 2026-09-24; see coverage for what is collected. Not for navigation.