With at least 10 rocket launches planned for 2016, as well as what could be the West Coast’s first-ever rocket landing, this year is shaping up to be one of Vandenberg Air Force Base’s most exciting in recent memory, according to 30th Space Wing Commander Col. J Christopher Moss.

Moss made that comment during a State of the Base presentation and luncheon Wednesday at VAFB’s Pacific Coast Club. The event was organized jointly by the Lompoc and Santa Maria chambers of commerce.

With an audience composed primarily of elected officials and other business and community leaders, Moss went over some of the base’s accomplishments of 2015 before enthusiastically looking at what lies ahead for the remainder of this year.

Among the plans for the coming months, he said, is a collaboration with SpaceX for VAFB to host the space flight company’s first West Coast flyback mission on land.

That mission will involve a SpaceX rocket boosting a satellite into orbit and then returning to earth, where it will attempt to land on the ground back at the base.

SpaceX was able to successfully land a rocket on land last year in Florida, but has failed three times since 2015 at landing on an ocean-based barge, including one such failure last month from VAFB.

“We are planning for that now and expect in 2016 to do our very first flyback mission here at Vandenberg,” Moss said, drawing applause from the audience. “This has the potential to really change the way we think about space lift.

"That is coming to us," he added, "and it’s going to take a lot of hard work by a lot of members of the team to make sure that happens successfully and safely.”