Mojave

California State Route 14 passes on the west side of Mojave, providing access to Mojave from the Antelope Valley to the south and US Highway 395 to the north. California State Route 58 loops around Mojave to the east and north, providing access from Bakersfield to the west and Barstow to the east. More distant cities include Los Angeles (95 miles south on SR-14), Las Vegas (225 miles east on SR-58), San Francisco (345 miles west on SR-58), and Reno (375 miles north on SR-14).

Mojave has no local taxicab service, however of you are willing to pay a $25-50 minimum fare, you can call for taxicab service from:

California City Yellow Cab (California City), +1 760-338-3494.

• 🌍 Mojave Air and Space Port (MHV  ^IATA). General aviation 

🌍 Edwards Air Force Base, 1 S. Rosamond Blvd (take the 14 south to Rosamond, then take Rosamond Blvd east out of town and follow it directly to the base), ☏ +1 661 277-3510. (updated Jun 2015)

Edwards AFB is a massive testing and training ground for the Air Force and NASA southeast of Mojave. There is a museum on the base and tours are available. See the website for details. Note that this is an active military base so ID will be required and visitors may be required to submit to a search.

Edwards AFB is best known for being similar to Area 51, but test and experimental aircraft will come out of the hangar to experiment. From 1876 there was an unsettled water stop at this point, for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The air base was built in 1933 and opened for use in 1948, for the military and NACA; and in 1958, NACA became NASA. Ever since, Edwards is a NASA base as well. The Space Shuttles that didn't land on the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida did it on Edwards AFB's dry lakebed runways.

That is the only civilian gateway to enter Edwards. So, if you are driving from Rosamond, or driving on the Antelope Valley Freeway from Los Angeles, Mojave, or Palmdale, you shall take exit 55, and if from Palmdale, take a right, and if from Mojave, take a left. And leave Rosamond, and never take any turn and enter the base by a gate, and continue to enter the base. This is called the West Gate, If you are on Route 58, take Exit 186, then get on the road, and you will enter via the North Gate. South Gate is Lancaster but it is closed.

• 🌍 NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (Dryden Flight Research Center). Known as the Dryden Flight Research Center until the name was changed in 2014, this center has played an important role in the history of flight. Before NASA, NACA ("National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics") operated and tested the transsonic Douglas Skyrocket. The center also conducted the Controlled Impact Demonstration in 1984, a test in which a Boeing 720 aircraft was remotely piloted and intentionally crashed in order to study fuel additives meant to reduce fires in the case of a crash. Other experiments have included "aerospike" engines and supersonic rockets. Five lunar landing research vehicles were tested at the base, one of which is available for viewing. 
• Air Force Rocket Research Laboratory. Home to the test rockets, they test rockets to research the rockets. 
• 🌍 Retired aircraft. There are a lot of military aircraft, such as Balls 8, a B-52 Stratofortress, on display near the gate. Take a lot of pictures of these planes statues when you are driving or walking in Edwards AFB. 
• 🌍 Rogers Dry Lake. Dry most of the year, the hard surface of the lakebed provides an extension for runways at Edwards, and is home to approximately 16 runways. Many notable aeronautic achievements have taken place here (updated Jun 2015)