Onizuka Air Force Base

By Joseph T. Page II

For nearly five decades, some of the United States military's most secretive operations were conducted out of a collection of nondescript buildings at the intersection of State Route 237 and Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale, California. The installation was known by a variety of names in its early years: Satellite Test Center, Air Force Satellite Control Facility, the "Blue Cube," and Sunnyvale Air Force Station. In July 1986, the facility was renamed Onizuka Air Force Base after Col. Ellison S. Onizuka, the first Asian American astronaut, who was killed during the space shuttle Challenger accident. The location was selected due to its proximity to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company's Sunnyvale facilities and supported early satellite reconnaissance programs such as Corona, Gambit, and Hexagon. As the nation's nucleus for satellite command and control, workers at Onizuka Air Force Base directed efforts for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), US military, and NASA's space shuttle program until the closure of the base in 2010.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Nov 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781439668467

Joseph T. Page II

Joseph T. Page II is the author of Holloman Air Force Base and New Mexico Space Trail, both in Arcadia�s Images of America series. Photographs within have been graciously provided by the Tularosa Basin Historical Society, National Park Service archives, and private collections.

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INTRODUCTION

Author’s note on naming: Historically speaking, Air Force stations (AFS) are named after locations, not people. On the rare occasion there is an AFS with a memorial name, it is due to downsizing or realignment of the facility. I chose this book’s title based on the dedication of the site immediately after Colonel Onizuka’s untimely death in 1986. Any perceived slight to former employees about the naming is solely the author’s fault.

Right off the intersection of State Route 237 and Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale resides a 19-acre plot of land that has remained virtually untouched by the billion-dollar technology companies surrounding it. Through the eyes of its workers and infrastructure, this location has seen many changes over the decades. From fruit groves on dirt roads to glistening glass towers, the land has seen a technological shift.

Onizuka Air Force Station was dedicated in 1986 and named after the first Asian American astronaut, Col. Ellison S. Onizuka. It was renamed Onizuka Air Force Base in 1987. The site, however, had gone by many other names over the decades, some official and some unofficial. The Satellite Test Annex (STA), Satellite Test Center (STC), Air Force Satellite Control Facility (AFSCF), and Consolidated Space Test Center (CSTC) were just a few of the official Air Force designations. The unofficial names were a bit more colorful: the Stick, DICE, Oz, and the one name with staying power that is wrapped in mystery: the Blue Cube.

BIRTHPLACE OF SPACE RECONNAISSANCE

After two pivotal historic events—the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945—the American psyche was attuned to avoiding the worst possible combination of both events on the North American continent: an atomic sneak attack. Advances in aerial photography, rocketry, and computer technology during World War II helped American scientists and engineers synthesize a solution to this nuclear Pearl Harbor. The US Army Air Forces–funded Project RAND (adopting its name from a contraction of the term research and development) released its first report, titled Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship, in May 1946. This report discussed the design, performance, and potential uses of manmade satellites, including an application as a reconnaissance system. In January 1954, Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) used another RAND satellite study, Project FEEDBACK, to form a proposal for the Advanced Reconnaissance System, also known as Weapon System 117L (WS-117L).

SUNNYVALE AND LOCKHEED MISSILES AND SPACE COMPANY

In 1950, the agricultural community of Sunnyvale, known for the Libby’s fruit packing company and the Joshua Hendy Iron Works, had reached a population of just over 9,800. Over the next four years, many industries moved to the city, boosting the population to more than 22,000. The influx of people and industries saw rising taxes placed on farmland, making agriculture unsustainable and encouraging landowners to sell. The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, originating from Van Nuys, California, created the Lockheed Missile Systems Division, which subsequently became the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. A new complex, designated as Plant One, was built on 345 acres known locally as the Holthouse property on the perimeter of Naval Air Station (NAS) Moffett Field. Plant One and Lockheed’s operations covered 955 acres by 1960. Lockheed considered two critical factors in relocating to Sunnyvale: proximity to institutions of higher learning (such as Stanford University, the University of California– Berkeley, and San Jose State University) and proximity and access to a secure airfield (at NAS Moffett Field).

WEAPON SYSTEM 117L

On October 29, 1956, Lockheed was selected by the Air Force Western Development Division as the primary contractor for WS-117L. The design included many individual subsystems, designated by an alphabet character:

A: Airframe (Agena)

B: Propulsion (Agena)

C: Auxiliary Power Supply (Agena)

D: Guidance and Control (Agena)

E: Visual Reconnaissance (Corona)

F: Ferret (Electromagnetic) Reconnaissance (Signals Intelligence, or SIGINT)

G: Infrared Reconnaissance (Missile Defense Alarm System)

H: Communications System (Satellite Control Network)

I: Data processing

J: Geophysical environment

K: Personnel

L: Biomedical Recovery

Lockheed’s WS-117L entry would see the development of the Agena upper stage vehicle and the beginnings of a tracking network (Subsystem H) with a handful of stations around the United States at places like Kaena Point, Hawaii; New Hampshire; Point Mugu, California; and Kodiak, Alaska. Along with the STC, these remote tracking sites (RTS) formed the nucleus of what would later be known as the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN).

ORIGINS OF THE STICK

In a November 14, 1958, memo to the chief of staff of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Bernard Schriever outlined the offer from Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to transfer 11.4 acres at its Sunnyvale facility to the Air Force without cost. Some of the factors in favor of using the Lockheed offer were proximity to the Lockheed plant where Agena was being built; cost savings from using the orbital determination (ephemeris calculating) computer already present; and simplified management using onsite management and technical personnel. The people were already trained, computers were available, and the land was free. It was a win-win situation for both Lockheed and the Air Force.

While the details for a permanent control station were being planned, Lockheed completed an interim satellite control center in nearby Palo Alto in January 1959. The interim control center would provide command and control support for the February 28 launch of the first Discoverer mission, intercepting 514 seconds of telemetry from the world’s first polar-orbiting satellite. The mission would also see the first successful test of the Agena upper stage.

THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE PROGRAM

Starting as a CIA effort under the guise of the Discoverer biomedical satellite project, the Corona program became the