[3] It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration on June 17, 2004.

In 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Board began improvements to the airport for national defense purposes that included two 4,500 by 150 feet (1,372 m × 46 m) asphalt runways and a taxiway.

[4] With the end of World War II, MCAAS was disestablished on February 7, 1946; a United States Navy Air Station (NAS) was established the same day.

According to the American Film Institute (AFI), the "location shooting took place ..., at the Moroc Naval Air Base near Mojave, CA, ...".

[6] On 22 August 1951, the 11th Naval District announced the award to R. R. Hensler, of Sun Valley, of a $1.307 million contract for the extension and strengthening of the runway at the Marine Corps auxiliary airfield.

[8] From 1974 to 1979, Golden West Airlines scheduled flights on de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters direct to Los Angeles (LAX).

"[2] Besides being a general-use public airport, Mojave has three main areas of activity: flight testing, space industry development, and aircraft heavy maintenance and storage.

Since the early 1980s, the Wildfire (a custom-built Unlimited based around a T-6 airframe designed by William H. Statler) has slowly been developed in a Mojave hangar.

[12] Ralph Wise's many air racing projects, including the Sport Class Legal GT400 and his V-8 powered unlimited, the GT500, both were designed and built at Mojave (the GT500 spent its early life at Camarillo).

It is also favored for this purpose due to its proximity to Edwards Air Force Base, where the airspace is restricted from ground level to an unlimited height, and where there is a supersonic corridor.

Beginning with the Rotary Rocket program, Mojave became a focus for small companies seeking a place to develop space access technologies.

Mojave Spaceport has been a test site for several teams in the Ansari X Prize, most notably the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne, which conducted the first privately funded human sub-orbital flight on June 21, 2004.

[19] Numerous Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, and Airbus jetliners, including wide-body aircraft previously or currently owned by major domestic and international airlines, are stored at Mojave.

[citation needed] The airport refurbished an old United States Marine Corps hangar from the World War II era into a modern event center.

It was previously used for water survival training then transformed into the Stuart O. Witt Event Center with over 23,000 square feet (2,100 m2) of multi-use space.

[52][53] On Oct. 31, 2014, the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft VSS Enterprise broke up during a test flight after being dropped from the WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve carrier aircraft.