Vandenberg Space Force Base celebrates their annual holiday tree lighting at the Pacific Coast Club on Nov 30, 2021. Base personnel and their families gathered around the tree as Col. Robert Long, Space Launch Delta 30 commander, threw the switch to commence holiday festivities. (U.S. Space Force video by Airman 1st Class Rocio Romo and Airman Ryan Quijas)

United States Space Force Capt. Nicholas Herzer, center, 18th Space Control Squadron mission assurance flight commander and chief of the Combat Development Division, stands with several other members of the CDD, Nov. 23, 2021, in front of the Combined Force Space Component Command headquarters building at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. Responsible for innovation and fast implementation of ideas generated locally, the division was announced as Space Operations Command’s 2021 Colonel Bradford W. Parkinson Innovation Team Award, and will now compete for recognition at the U.S. Space Force level.

Members of the Vandenberg Fire Department, Security Forces and other supporting units watch a rocket launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., Nov. 23, 2021. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched into space supporting the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) space mission. This was the first planetary defense space mission. (U.S. Space Force photo by Senior Airman Daniel Sanchez)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying NASA’s first planetary defense test mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), launches from Space Launch Complex-4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA, Nov. 23, 2021, at 10:21 p.m. Pacific Time. The DART spacecraft is designed to direct itself to impact an asteroid while traveling at a speed of roughly 15,000 miles per hour (24,000 kilometers per hour). Its target is the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos (Greek for “two forms”), which orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos (Greek for “twin”). In fall 2022, DART is projected to impact Dimorphos to change its orbit within the Didymos binary asteroid system. The Didymos system is the ideal candidate for DART because it poses no actual impact threat to Earth, and scientists can measure the change in Dimorphos’ orbit with ground-based telescopes. (U.S. Space Force photo by Michael Peterson)

Team Vandenberg is supporting a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch carrying NASA’s first planetary defense test mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) from Space Launch Complex-4 here Tuesday, Nov. 23, at 10:20 p.m. Pacific Time.

Members of Space Launch Delta 30 line up and prepare for the monthly Delta Dash on Nov. 5, 2021 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. The monthly SLD 30 run acts as a method for members across the base to build upon their comradery and espirit de corps within the ranks. (U.S. Space Force photo by Staff Sergeant Draeke Layman)

Senior Airman William Boyce, 30th Security Forces Squadron combat arms instructor reviews a member’s shot grouping during a live-fire training at the Combat Arms Training and Maintenance range on Nov. 5, 2021 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. The 30th SFS provides reoccurring and deployment-ready weapons qualification training to hundreds of Vandenberg personnel each year. (U.S. Space Force photo by Staff Sergeant Draeke Layman)