Matagorda

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Matagorda Peninsula airfield is a surface base that comes with the default Orbiter installation.

History

Built during WW2 to support the Matagorda Bombing Range and know as Matagorda Island AFB. The site was one of the early NASA considerations for a launch site before they settled on Cape Canaveral.

After that it was used by Deke Slayton and other former astronauts in a private space venture in the late 1960s/1970s. Several attempts to launch kerosene/liquid oxygen vehicles failed. At that time it had 6 paved runways (longest 8,000'), control tower, VOR (116.4) and NDB beacons.

Matagorda Island AFB was deactivated in 1975.

References

[1]