It is headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, and manages the United States' space launch ranges.

In 1960, the HGM-25A Titan I ICBM made its first flight and was turned over to Strategic Air Command in 1962, completing the deployment of the first-generation ballistic missiles.

The first space launch vehicle developed by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division was the Thor-Able, which used a Thor IRBM as the first stage and a Vanguard-derived Able.

Initial plans called for a constellation of eight spacecraft in polar orbits to monitor the Soviet Union, however due to early satellite failures it remained a test program until 1968.

[8] The first space missions launched by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division were not military, the but scientific Pioneer lunar probes.

The Thor-Able rocket was specifically developed by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Agency for these lunar missions, which aimed to enhance scientific knowledge and American global prestige during the Cold War.

The Titan IIIC was first launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on 18 June 1965 and used two large solid rocket booster.

[8] In 1963, the Space Systems Division initiated the Defense Support Program, which was intended to succeed where MIDAS failed and create an orbital constellation of infrared missile warning sensors.

The Army Signal Corps' project SCORE, launched by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division in 1958, was the world's first communications satellite but intended as a proof of concept.

The Army Signal Corps followed by launching Courier 1B on an Air Force Ballistic Missile Division Thor-Ablestar in 1960, but it failed after 17 days in orbit.

The Space Systems Division began development on the Initial Defense Communications Satellite Program (IDCSP) in 1962, launching constellations from 1966 to 1968. the IDCSP, also known as the Defense Satellite Communications Program Phase I (DSCS I) once operational, transmitted both voice and images to support the United States during the Vietnam War.

However, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara announced the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, which was assigned to the Space Systems Division by General Bernard Schriever.

Douglas Aircraft Company was responsible for the spacecraft, and the Space Systems Division was developing the Titan IIIM booster.

The Space Systems Division's Program 437 used Thor boosters and nuclear warheads to destroy a satellite or space-based weapon from Johnston Atoll.

The Navy and Air Force both began follow on programs, with the Space and Missile Systems Organization developing Project 621B, envisioning a constellation of 20 satellites in synchronous inclined orbits.

In 1982, it was named the LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM by President Ronald Reagan and was capable of launching ten reentry vehicles at different targets more than 6,000 miles away.

The permanent basing construct including making the Peacekeeper rail-mobile on trains, but with the end of the Cold War those plans were canceled by President George H. W. Bush in 1991.

Its first test flight occurred in 1991 from Vandenberg Air Force Base to a target in the Kwajalein Missile Range, but was canceled in 1992 due to the end of the Cold War.

The Titan IV had already started development in 1985, but the Challenger disaster reinforced the need to have a diverse fleet of space launch vehicles.

It also continued the Defense Satellite Communications System Phase III deployment, launching the first in 1982 and the full constellation was completed in 1993.

In response, the Space and Missile Systems Center built the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program and awarded the first contracts in 1995.

[10][11] In 2019, in part due to SpaceX's success with reusable rockets, the program's name was changed to National Security Space Launch.

[4] In July 2021, President Biden nominated Deputy Director of the National Reconnaissance Office Maj Gen Michael Guetlein to lead Space Systems Command.

In addition to Space and Missile Systems Center units realigning, the 61st Air Base Group was redesignated the Los Angeles Garrison.

[7] One 8 December 2023, SSC stood up the first two provisional System Deltas (SYDs) in an activation and assumption of command ceremony at the Los Angeles Air Force Base.

[23] SYDs will consolidate program offices in SSC that design, develop, and deliver mission systems under a mission-focused command structure for acquisitions.

IMDs will consolidate all aspects of mission-area readiness into a single organization, combining units in Space Operations Command (SpOC) that perform mission generation, intelligence support, and cyber defense with program offices at SSC that handle sustainment.

[26] The Space and Missile Systems Center Organizational emblem represents the cooperation of science, industry, and the military in advancing the defense technology of the United States, and the role of SMC in unifying and directing this effort.

The circle surrounding the diagonal lines represents the total integrating role of SMC in planning, developing and testing military systems and in acquiring them for the national defense.

U.S. Armed Forces systems commands This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government