Los Angeles Air Force Base is the local and national administrative and technical nucleus of federal satellite and rocket production, and occupies a cluster of buildings at the southern end of the old Douglas Aircraft plant. The primary tenant on the base was known for years as the Space and Missile Systems Center. Started in 1954, the Center’s original mission was to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles. During the Cold War, it directed and oversaw all military satellite and space operations, including researching and developing new technologies, guiding their production, launching them into space, and managing their operation, before handing them over to their operating commands. This mission continues today, though in 2021 it was renamed as the Space Systems Command, part of the US Space Force. More than 20,000 people are engaged in these operations, at a few locations across the country, directed by the headquarters in El Segundo. A major redevelopment of the base in 2006 replaced and upgraded most of the buildings.