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Mojave, CA
Topics: Edwards Air Force Base, SpaceShipOne, Mojave, Kern County
Posted by admin Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments Location: Mojave, CA

Mojave is one of those amazing places you can only find in Kern County: a tiny desert town on one hand, home of the country's first licensed spaceport on the other.

That juxtaposition hurtled into the nation's consciousness in 2004, when SpaceShipOne earned the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

The craft, designed by Mojave aerospace entrepreneur Burt Rutan, completed the world's first privately funded, manned trips to the edge of space (twice in two weeks) to earn the X Prize.

It also earned Rutan, and Mojave, a place in flight history many compare with the Wright brothers and Kitty Hawk.

The ship earned Time magazine's Invention of the Year in 2004. Rutan showed up everywhere from NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno to the erudite pages of the New Yorker magazine.

SpaceShipOne now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. A replica is displayed at Bakersfield's William M. Thomas Air Terminal.

Beyond Mojave, the juxtaposition extends across the high-desert landscape to nearby Edwards Air Force Base, where a test-pilot tradition made famous in "The Right Stuff" still soars overhead and space shuttles still touch down from time to time.

On the terrestrial plane, Mojave has the typical amenities of a small town:
a Little League, football league, chamber of commerce and a newspaper, the Mojave Desert News.

A recent freeway bypass, which swung Highway 58 around Mojave rather than through it, has hurt some travel-related businesses along the central corridor.
The town is situated near the western edge of the Mojave Desert, which covers 22,000 square miles in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The so-called "high desert" sits at altitudes ranging roughly between 3,000-6,000 feet.

West of Mojave, the Tehachapi Mountains create a geographical separation between the desert and the southern San Joaquin Valley.

Geography and economy
Size: 58.5 square miles

Population: 3,307

Median home price in 2006: $170,000

History
Year founded: 1876

Business
Mojave Air and Space Port: 824-2433, 1434 Flightline St.

Edwards Air Force Base: 1 S. Rosamond Blvd., 277-1110

Chamber of Commerce: 824-2481, 15821 K St.


Government
Government: 2nd District County Supervisor Don Maben's Mojave
representative: James Welling, 824-7000, ext. 1, 1775 Highway 58

Law enforcement: Kern County Sheriff's Department, Mojave substation:
824-7130, 1771 Highway 58

Fire: Kern County Fire Department, Mojave Station No. 14, 824-4581, 1953 Highway 58

Animal control: Mojave Animal Shelter, 824-1030, 923 Poole St.

Community services
Mojave Unified School District: 824-4001, 3500 Douglas Ave.

Library: Mojave Branch of the Kern County Library, 824-2243, 169161-2 Highway 14

Kern County Human Services Department: Mojave office, 824-7500, 2340 Highway
58

Senior Citizens Center: 15580 0 St., Joan Kuster, 824-2082 Elks Lodge: 824-2240, 16200 K St.

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