thumb|Mojave, looking east, from
thumb|The [[Mojave Air and Space Port as viewed from nearby Highway 58]]
Mojave (formerly Mohave) at an elevation of .
The population was 4,700 at the 2020 census, up from 4,238 at the 2010 census. Telephone numbers in Mojave follow the format (661) 824-xxxx and the area includes three postal ZIP Codes.
History
The town of Mojave began in 1876 as a construction camp on the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1884 to 1889, the town was the western terminus of the , twenty-mule team at Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley. It later served as headquarters for construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. Marine Corps took over the airport and expanded it into Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station (MCAAS) Mojave. The two existing runways were extended and a third one added. Barracks were constructed to house 2,735 male and 376 female military personnel. Civilian employment at the base would peak at 178. The Marines would eventually spend more than $7 million on the base, which totaled . Squadrons used Mojave for ordnance training when El Toro had bad weather. Marine Corps reserve units were temporarily deployed to Mojave for two week periods. MCAAS Mojave personnel peaked at 400 military and 200 civilians during this period.
In 1961, after the USMC transferred operations to MCAS El Centro, Kern County obtained title to the airport. In February 1972, the East Kern Airport District (EKAD) was formed to administer the airport; EKAD maintains the airport to this day. To a great extent EKAD was the brainchild of Dan Sabovich who heavily lobbied the state for the airport district's creation and ran EKAD until 2002.
Mojave Air and Space Port
On November 20, 2012, the EKAD Board of Directors voted to change the name of the district to the Mojave Air and Space Port. Officials said that the spaceport name is well known around the world, but EKAD is not. The change took effect on January 1, 2013.
The airport is now the home of various aerospace companies and institutions such as Scaled Composites and the civilian National Test Pilot School. The town was home to the Rutan Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world nonstop and unrefueled. The airport is also the first inland spaceport in the United States, and was the location of the first private spaceflight, the launch of SpaceShipOne on June 21, 2004.
Mojave also has a Mojave Transportation Museum.
Geography
Mojave is located at . It has hot summers and cool winters. Average January temperatures are a maximum of and a minimum of . Average July temperatures are a maximum of and a minimum of . There are an average of 98 days with highs of and an average of 45.7 days with lows of . The record high temperature was on August 5, 1914. The record low temperature was on December 23, 1990.
Average annual rainfall is . There are an average of 22 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1983 with and the driest year was 1942 with . The most rainfall in one month was in February 1998. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on January 30, 1915. Snow is relatively rare in Mojave, averaging . The most snowfall in one month was in February 1911.