posted 06-01-2009 10:24 PM               

Editor's note: In an effort to keep the topic The deconstruction of launch pad 39B focused on status updates, reader's feedback and opinions have been moved to this thread.

Please use this topic to discuss Pad 39B's dismantling as NASA prepares to a "clean pad" for future launch vehicles.

posted 06-06-2009 09:23 PM               

On June 3, the oxygen vent hood, called the "beanie cap," and gaseous oxygen vent arm was removed from Launch Pad 39B's fixed service structure and lowered the 227 feet to the ground.

posted 06-11-2009 08:35 AM               

• Pad 39A has the ML-2 section and was used for Apollo 4, 9, 12, 14 and the Skylab workshop.

• Pad 39B has the ML-3 and was used for Apollo 10, 13, 15, 16, and 17

posted 06-22-2009 02:33 PM               

Fifty-two launches and 20 years later, Discovery's STS-116 crew became the last to cross the walkway before departing for space.

posted 04-12-2010 02:42 PM               

Although its once-planned tenant is being scrapped, the servicing towers at the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B will be demolished this summer to ready the complex for an uncertain future.

...LVI Services Inc., a New York-based demolition and remediation firm, will begin work in late June or early July, Perez-Morales said.

The demolition will not use explosives like those used on other abandoned launch pads. Perez-Morales said the structures will be dismantled in a "very controlled" process as workers take apart the towers one piece at a time.

The launch pad will not be imploded to protect the facility's concrete surface and lightning towers, which will be reused.

NASA signed the contract with LVI in early March. The agreement stipulates that the pad be leveled within 200 days after NASA gives approval to proceed this summer, Perez-Morales said in an interview Friday.

posted 09-01-2010 01:46 PM               

The agency's $1.3 million contract with LVI Environmental Services Inc., a New York-based demolition and remediation firm, calls for the iconic towers to be removed from the pad perimeter by Jan. 13, 2011, according to Perez-Morales.

The January deadline is 200 days after NASA gave the contractor a notice to proceed with the demolition in late June...

Unlike other launch complex demolitions at Cape Canaveral, pad 39B's servicing towers will not be imploded using explosives. Instead, NASA wants to methodically take apart the structures using cranes to protect the facility's concrete foundation, which the agency plans to reuse.

The first step will be to cover the pad surface with up to 2 feet of sand, protective plates and ribbing. Workers will next move the pad's rotating service structure to a partially-retracted position parallel to the flame trench.

The towers' removal will begin in earnest by the end of September, [launch pad project manager Jose] Perez-Morales said, with the removal of cladding and support metals from the rotating service structure, leaving just a skeleton before workers move in cranes to cut the 13-story gantry from the fixed tower, Perez-Morales said.

Later this year, the contractor's attention will turn to the 25-story fixed service structure. Divided into 12 levels, the tower will be removed piece-by-piece as it was constructed.

"They're going to go to each floor, disconnect each floor all around, and then take each floor down," Perez-Morales said.

The contractor will move the remains of the structures to a parking lot outside the pad, where teams will cut the metal into smaller pieces for shipping to a recycling center.

"The equipment will come in and do the final cutting and go to the parking lot, where they will sort the metals to decide what they're going recycle and what's going to the garbage can," Perez-Morales said.

posted 10-01-2010 12:32 AM               

The equipment will come in and do the final cutting and go to the parking lot, where they will sort the metals to decide what they're going recycle and what's going to the garbage can," Perez-Morales said.

posted 10-01-2010 02:40 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
...there are currently no provisions in place as part of this contract to transfer discarded debris

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posted 10-02-2010 10:26 PM               

LVI Environmental Services will collect money from the recycling, reducing the cost of the demolition to NASA.

"The reason why is because the contractor will get a lot of advantage because of the amount of steel, the copper, all the metals on the tower that he's going to recycle and get dollars for," Perez-Morales said.

posted 03-23-2011 05:36 PM               

I hope at least a couple of the segments can be preserved for future display and not left to rot (and risk leaching leaded paint into the water table) like what happened to the last Apollo era LUT to get dismantled. Because of the paint lead risk, NASA ended up totally scrapping that tower except for a couple of the arms (including the white room).

posted 03-23-2011 05:46 PM               

Perhaps because of the lessons learned from NASA's attempt to retain/reserve LUT-1 and its subsequent EPA-forced disposal, and most certainly due to the space agency's budget constraints, all of Pad 39B's fixed service structure, with the exception of two of its swing arms and some smaller but historically notable parts, will be removed off-site and processed as scrap metal.

posted 05-16-2011 03:43 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Fra Mauro:
Still hard to imagine an empty VAB, a quiet LCC and no launch pads down the crawlerway.

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"All changes are more or less tinged with melancholy, for what we are leaving behind is part of ourselves."
Amelia Barr

posted 05-16-2011 08:15 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by capoetc:
Hmmm ... end of June ... I suppose once 39B is done they can start the deconstruction of 39A as well.

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posted 05-17-2011 12:56 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Fra Mauro:
Still hard to imagine an empty VAB, a quiet LCC and no launch pads down the crawlerway.

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posted 05-21-2011 01:20 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by jr-transport:
Perhaps we could petition them to sell a section to a museum or even just to sell us a few small pieces.

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