Space Base

A Supervillain Lair -- IN SPACE! For total isolation from those pesky heroes, spy organizations, and other do-gooders, there's nothing better than your very own space station. Tailor-built for the villain with a bottomless budget, the space base often doubles as a Kill Sat, Wave Motion Gun, or some other doomsday device that can wipe cities (or even entire planets) off the map unless the governments of the world pay a hefty ransom.

A variation on the theme is the moon base; it's within blasting distance of the earth, and there's a lot of prime real estate just waiting for the evil mastermind to snap up.

See Space Station for the less elaborate and villainous variant of this trope.

Compare Elaborate Underground Base, Underwater Base, and Island Base.

Anime and Manga

 * UFO Robo Grendizer (one of the Mazinger Z sequels: The lair of the Vegan invaders was a Space Base set in the Moon they used to launch their raids and strikes from.
 * Precia Testarossa has her base in a different dimension. In space.

Comic Books

 * DC Comics' Injustice Gang had a satellite space station hangout at one time.
 * DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes has had a couple of these at different points. In the post-Zero Hour continuity, they built Outpost Allon, a space station which served as a secondary base. And later, after the Outpost was destroyed, they built a moon-sized Space Base called Legion World to serve as their (mobile) base of operations.
 * In X-Men, Magneto has the Asteroid M at first, and then Avalon.
 * In All Fall Down, the Order of Despots has one of these on the moon. It's seen in first in a flashback, and is later visited in the present.

Film

 * The film version of the James Bond story Moonraker has its climax take place in a orbital space station.
 * The second Austin Powers film also has a moon base, complete with moon laser.
 * If examples where everything's in space count, then we wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Death Star.
 * Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has the Fallen's base/pad/hatchery on a moon of Saturn.

Literature

 * Robert Heinlein novels:
 * In Rocket Ship Galileo, the protagonists discover a hidden Nazi base on the Moon after the end of World War 2.
 * In Between Planets, the Earth's repressive police state government has a space station called Circum-Terra that's loaded with nuclear weapons.

Live Action TV

 * Inverted in Gerry Anderson's Space Precinct where the police precinct house is a space station. Of course, this doesn't make much sense, but it's supposed to look cool.
 * Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger- Bandora's palace is on the moon. Same naturally goes for Rita Repulsa in Power Rangers.
 * A nonvillainous example in Kamen Rider Fourze. The protagonists can access the Rabbit Hutch, a lunar base called "Rabbit Hatch", through Kengo's locker. It also becomes the hideaway for the Kamen Rider Club which is then littered with toys, food, and other paraphernalia to suit the teenagers' needs.

Music

 * In Jonathan Coulton's song "The Future Soon", the narrator speculates about his future self working as a scientist in his space lab in space, taking on such projects as solving world hunger, curing diseases, and building his robot army to take over the world.
 * And making dolphins speak!

Video Games

 * The Operative: No One Lives Forever had HARM's space base as one of the last levels. Since the game is largely a parody/homage of the classic Spy Fiction, it's safe to assume that that level was at least partially inspired by the Moonraker.
 * In the old arcade game Captain America and The Avengers, Red Skull has a moonbase, complete with giant laser cannon.
 * A related video game / comic example: Asteroid M, for Magneto.
 * The X-Nauts in Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door.
 * Super Mario Galaxy has Bowser Jr's Robot Reactor, Bowser's Star Reactor, Bowser Jr's Airship Armada, Bowser's Dark Matter Plant, Bowser Jr's Lava Reactor, and Bowser's Galaxy Reactor, while Super Mario Galaxy 2 has Bowser Jr's Fiery Flotilla, Bowser's Lava Lair, Bowser Jr's Fearsome Fleet, Bowser's Gravity Gauntlet, Bowser Jr's Boom Bunker, and Bowser's Galaxy Generator.
 * Makron's hollowed out asteroid at the end of Quake II.
 * Vohaul's asteroid base in Space Quest II.
 * The Third Moon in Strider.
 * The Karma Fortress from Asura's Wrath.

Web Comics

 * In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Dracula has a Moon Base. Yes, Dracula.

Western Animation

 * The Kids Next Door have a treehouse base on the moon.
 * Transformers Animated: The wreckage of the Nemesis on the moon becomes this for Starscream during season two.