San Diego de los Baños Cosmodrome
| Military spaceport | |
| "SanDi" | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Country |
 Nouvelle Alexandrie |
| Region |
 Alduria |
| Geographic location | Dasht-e Kavir Basin, near Mount Isfahan |
| Nearest city | Juana Díaz |
| Installation | |
| Type | Military spaceport and missile-testing facility (civil and commercial launch access) |
| Base | Federal Air Force |
| Launch operations | Federal Space Force |
| Part of | CCI |
| First launch | 1716 AN |
| Status | Active |
| Launch complexes | 3 (LC-1 to LC-3) |
| Part of the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie | |
The San Diego de los Baños Cosmodrome, known colloquially as SanDi, is a Federal Air Force base in the Region of Alduria that serves as the principal military spaceport of Nouvelle Alexandrie and a missile-testing facility. One of the primary installations of the CCI defense complex at Mount Isfahan, it is the site from which the Federal Space Force flies its orbital-defense and reconnaissance payloads, and it also provides launch services for civil and commercial customers. It is the country's second national launch site after the civil Delgado Space Flight Center, and averages about 17 launches a year.
The cosmodrome sits within the restricted Dasht-e Kavir Basin, alongside the Dasht-e Kavir missile ranges of CCI, next to the Javelin directed-energy testing range. Its position inland, under the protection of a hardened command complex, distinguishes it from Delgado, the coastal spaceport that handles the civil and crewed programs of the Aeronautics and Space Administration (ASANA).
Background
The ground that became the cosmodrome was laid during the construction of the CCI complex between 1707 AN and 1717 AN. Planners sited a launch facility inside the same restricted basin as the Federal Space Headquarters and the missile ranges, so that the military space program would not depend on the civil spaceport at Delgado, which the Aeronautics and Space Administration both operates and schedules.
The site opened under the Federal Air Force, which built and still holds the base, and it flew its first orbital launch in 1716 AN. When the Federal Space Force was established in 1720 AN, the cosmodrome became its principal launch site, and by 1727 AN, when the Federal Space Force assumed full control of the orbital-defense assets developed under the Nouvelle Alexandrie Orbital Defense Initiative, the site had become the launch point for those systems. Because it lies inland rather than on the coast, its launch corridors run over the empty basin and the missile ranges, which lets the Federal Space Force fly sensitive payloads without the public overflight and shared trajectories of a civil spaceport.
Facilities
The cosmodrome operates three launch complexes, designated LC-1 through LC-3. LC-1 and LC-2 handle the medium and heavy launch vehicles used for orbital-defense and reconnaissance payloads, while LC-3 is configured for smaller responsive launches that can be prepared and flown on short notice. A vertical integration building assembles vehicles under cover, a precaution suited to a military site. A separate solid-motor handling area sits away from the pads. Personnel for the site train at the co-located Air & Space Training Camp SANDI.
The installation shares the Dasht-e Kavir Basin with the CCI complex proper, and its western edge adjoins the Javelin Testing Range and Laboratory, run by Javelin Industries and the other directed-energy primes of Projet Faisceau, where the Vulcan and Basilisk Beam lines were proven. The two facilities share power and range-safety infrastructure. The units garrisoned at CCI provide security across the whole basin, and the cosmodrome falls under the same restricted airspace as the missile ranges.
Operations
The cosmodrome's primary role is military. The Federal Space Force launches orbital-defense platforms, reconnaissance and early-warning satellites, and replacement spacecraft from the site, most of them assets in the lineage of the Nouvelle Alexandrie Orbital Defense Initiative, and it maintains a responsive-launch capability at LC-3 intended to restore lost coverage quickly during a crisis. All of these payloads are conventional; the Federation's space forces field no orbital weapons of mass destruction, in keeping with its disarmament commitments. The base also supports missile testing on the adjoining Dasht-e Kavir ranges.
Alongside the military program, the cosmodrome sells launch services to civil and commercial customers. Javelin Industries flies commercial payloads from the site, and the site takes government science and communications launches that do not require the crewed infrastructure at Delgado. This dual use lets the Federal Space Force offset the cost of the ranges and keeps the commercial launch sector inside national territory rather than routing it through the Natopia-based NatAlex Launch Alliance. The division of labor between the two national spaceports is straightforward: Delgado carries the civil and crewed programs of ASANA, and San Diego de los Baños carries the military and responsive launches together with the commercial traffic that fits its ranges.
Role in space access
The diversification programs that followed the Recession of 1757 pushed Nouvelle Alexandrie toward advanced space technology, and the cosmodrome's location beside the Javelin directed-energy range gave it a part in that work. The same range that proves the Federation's laser weapons for Projet Faisceau offers a site where beamed-energy launch could be tested, in which ground-based lasers heat a launch vehicle's propellant rather than the vehicle carrying its own energy.
