welcome to Mojave
Mojave is a town surrounded by innovation. It contains the first Civilian Space Port known as the Mojave Air and Space Port. Here flight testing and space industry development has taken off. It is only a few miles away from the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm, one of the first large-scale wind farms in the United States. It is only a few more miles to the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch. Still under construction the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch is planned to be the biggest solar project in the world.
History
Mojave was established in 1876 as a construction camp for Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1884 to 1889, the town was the western terminus of the 165-mile (266 km), twenty-mule team borax wagon route originating at Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley.
Located near Edwards Air Force Base, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, and Palmdale Regional Airport, Mojave has a rich aerospace history. In 1935, Kern County established the Mojave Airport a half mile east of town to serve the gold and silver mining industry in the area. The airport consisted of two dirt runways, one of which was oiled. It lacked the ability to fuel or service their airplanes.
In 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Board began improvements to the airport for national defense purposes that included two 4,500 x 150-ft. asphalt runways and adjacent taxiway. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. Marine Corps took over the airport and expanded it into Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station (MCAAS) Mojave. The two existing runways were extended and a third one added. Barracks were constructed to house military personnel. The Marines would eventually spend more than $7 million on the base, which totaled 2,312 acres
The airport is now the home of various aerospace companies and institutions such as Scaled Composites and the civilian National Test Pilot School. The town was home to the Rutan Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world nonstop and unrefueled. The airport is also the first inland spaceport in the United States, the Mojave Air and Space Port, which was the location of the first private spaceflight, the launch of Space Ship One on June 21, 2004. In the fictional Star Trek universe, it is the home town of Captain Christopher Pike.
