By 1986 the entire facility was essentially ready. Enterprise which was used for the Approach and Landing tests almost a decade before was used to test the launch pad and processing buildings. The cost involved in creating the infrastructure to launch a shuttle here was enormous but much of the facilities were merely modified. After all, the USAF already had twenty years of space projects know how and hardware put into the facility. Astronauts, such as Robert Crippen, were even in training for a launch from Vandenberg in June. As a testament to how serious NASA and USAF was too launching from this new site, the entire nomenclature of mission designations was changed. For example, until 1984, each mission was designated STS-4 or STS-5. Which just means that this was the fourth or fifth mission to take place so far. But with the new launch site it was changed to STS-31A or STS-32B. With “A” meaning Kennedy and “B” meaning Vandenberg.
The Challenger disaster, in January 1986, for all of its horror was also a window into the operational capabilities of NASA at the time. The agency had cut corners, ignored safety precautions, and stopped listening to astronauts and engineers in order to meet launch schedules and paid the ultimate price. After the loss of life on Challenger, it was clear to the public, Congress, and people of NASA that the Shuttle was never going to be a system that would make weekly trips into space or have a few days of turn around time after each mission. Astronauts could not casually step onto the massive machine and just expect a quick and easy ride into outer space. With the great thundering blow of Challenger people realized what they had suspected, and had been forced to learn for several years; the Shuttle was no different than Apollo, or Gemini or Mercury, it would have to be inspected, tested, and coddled through every mission. Vandenberg could no longer be afforded in too many ways.
Unfortunately, after Challenger Vandenburg would not be used as a second launch site. For the next two years NASA regrouped and reassessed safety procedures and risks that put astronauts lives in danger. Vandenburg was, in the end, just seen as another chance for an astronaut to be killed and was cancelled as an alternative launch site. The launch facility would have to return to the less spectacular, but critical, task of workhorse satellites.
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