Space Base California

Pale Blue Dot Ventures (PBDV) knows it has an exceptional opportunity. 

That opportunity? To tell the story and teach the science of future space exploration with Space Base California, an exciting space-themed STEM educational and entertainment venue. 

Planned for an 82-acre site in Lompoc, California, on the Pacific Coast Highway, Space Base California is just 10 miles from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB).

There, the yearly launch cadence by NASA, SpaceX and a growing slate of launch companies should exceed more than 60 by 2025. 

PBDV has been working with us at IDEAS since 2019. 

We started with concept development and branding. Recently, we completed a pre-schematic design package to attract investors and finalize transfer of the property deed.

Pale Blue Dot, IDEAS and Space Base California

As a partner and the exclusive creative team for Pale Blue Dot, IDEAS developed the complete guest Experience Design Plan and brand. 

Both align with a 20-year pro forma and business plan that our Integrated Insight partners created. 

The result is a new experience genre.

It’s part space exploration complex, part multiday science camp and part regional science center. It also hosts unique on-site lodging and large event venues.

Space Base California will offer an entirely new way to educate, entertain and inspire. 

The park features a diverse portfolio of human space exploration training simulators, kinetic experiences and immersive theater attractions. All bring the reality of off-world exploration’s next generation to eager minds and racing hearts. 

These experiences are broad and innovative in scope:

• A VR drop tower experience, building on our work at Super Bowl LI with Future Flight for a memorable journey to Mars 
• Kinetic and motion simulators for traversing the moon’s surface
• A Mars surface rover excursion course
• Drone aviary
• Massive OmniDome visualization theater for immersive “holodeck-like” experiences

Using past immersive space exploration training experiences we developed for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, we’ve honed our multipurpose approach for a flexible “space base” facility.

It includes programs for park guests, extended-stay campers and field-trip students. 

Additionally, the destination includes an outdoor observation plaza for viewing launches from VSFB’s Southern Space Launch Complexes — the West Coast’s only active space launch facility.

Ongoing Work

Currently, we’re completing design work for Space Base California. 

We’re positioning it as a future venue with premium branding and a global draw. Its future-facing focus is on two main matters:

• What’s next for human space exploration 
• That future’s natural overlap with continuing Earth observation from the orbit of our own “pale blue dot” 

Respectful of past achievements but certainly not tethered to retelling history, Space Base California will convey the story of humankind’s next great adventure.

And it will provide spark and engagement that endure long after its guests depart.