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Complex 36 demolition

The two mobile service towers at Cape Canaveral's Complex 36 that had supported Atlas rockets for decades are toppled to the ground with 122 pounds of explosives.

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Atlas 5's NRO launch

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifts off June 15 from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 on the classified NROL-30 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.

 Full Coverage

Booster cameras

Hitch a ride up and down on the twin solid rocket boosters that launched shuttle Atlantis last week. Each booster was outfitted with three cameras to give NASA upclose footage of the vehicle's ascent.

 Full Coverage

Atlantis launch coverage

Shuttle Atlantis blasted off June 8 on its mission to the space station.

 Full Coverage

Atlantis date set

NASA leaders hold this news briefing to announce shuttle Atlantis' launch date and recap the Flight Readiness Review.

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STS-70: Launching TDRS

NASA completed its initial constellation of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites with deployment of the TDRS-G by shuttle Discovery.

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STS-67: UV astronomy

A package of ultraviolet telescopes flew aboard shuttle Endeavour in March 1995 to observe Jupiter, stars and galaxies. The crew explains its mission in this film.

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Phoenix: At the Cape

NASA's Mars lander named Phoenix has arrive at Kennedy Space Center to begin preparations for launch in August.

 Full coverage

STS-63: A rendezvous with space station Mir

As a prelude to future dockings between American space shuttles and the Russian space station Mir, the two countries had a test rendezvous in Feb. 1995.

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"Apollo 17: On The Shoulders of Giants"

Apollo's final lunar voyage is relived in this movie. The film depicts the highlights of Apollo 17's journey to Taurus-Littrow and looks to the future Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and shuttle programs.

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Atlantis returns to pad

Two months after rolling off the launch pad to seek repairs to the hail-damaged external fuel tank, space shuttle Atlantis returns to pad 39A for mission STS-117.

 Part 1 | Part 2

"Apollo 10: To Sort Out The Unknowns"

The May 1969 mission of Apollo 10 served as a final dress rehearsal before the first lunar landing later that summer. Stafford, Young and Cernan went to the moon to uncover lingering spacecraft problems that needed to be solved.

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Former Atlas launch towers knocked down at Complex 36
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: June 16, 2007

Two historic Atlas rocket launch gantries made of metal and memories were brought down by chest-thumping explosions Saturday morning, erasing Complex 36 from the Cape Canaveral skyline after five decades of space missions.


Explosives fire to bring down the launch pad 36A mobile service tower. Photo credit: Spaceflight Now
 
Complex 36 was built in the early 1960s for Atlas-Centaur rockets that deployed many of NASA's early space exploration probes to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, plus robotic voyages to the moon that prepared for human landings.

Dozens of satellites that expanded communications around the globe and bolstered U.S. national security also flew from the site's two pads over the years, making Complex 36 one of America's longest serving launch sites.

Pad 36A saw 69 launches from 1962 through August 2004 and Pad 36B had 76 flights from 1965 until February 2005.

But times change and the Atlas program opted to retired its older rocket configurations. The new Atlas 5 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle made its home at Complex 41 on the northern edge of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, rendering Complex 36 no longer necessary.

Lockheed Martin secured the complex following the final launch two years ago, removed equipment and turned over the site to the Air Force for a multi-million dollar decommissioning and cleanup project.

The umbilical towers on the pads were torn down last fall and Saturday's explosive topplings of the 20-story mobile service towers completed the demise of the Atlas era at Complex 36.


This sequence of images shows the fall of pad 36B. Photo credit: Ben Cooper/Spaceflight Now
 
After a brief countdown on the warm, sunny morning, former Complex 36 workers, Air Force officials and the news media watched as pad 36B had its lower supports blown out, allowing the structure to tip over and smash into the ground at 9:59 a.m.

"All stations, good shot, good shot. Stand by for the next shot," one of the team members announced as smoke and dust rose from the crumpled heap.

Then went pad 36A at 10:11 a.m. with more deafening explosions followed a few seconds later by the crushing sounds of impact.

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"These pads were part of the premier complex in the nation's journey into space. They will be remembered many years to come," Mark Cleary, the 45th Space Wing historian at the Cape, said after watching the gantries fall.

"It is an emotional feeling because of the history of it," added NASA spokesman and launch commentator George Diller. His first launch commentary was an Atlas flight from Complex 36.

"But we still have a good feeling to know that the Atlas program, which really began at Complex 36, is going to be continuing."

Some 122 pounds of explosives were used as part of the $500,000 tower toppling job, including 86 pounds of shaped charges to cut the steel, 20 pounds of detonator cord and 16 pounds of gelatin dynamite.

It is considered much safer to dismantle the service towers on the ground than trying to take them apart while still standing. Demolition crews arrive Monday to cut up and haul away the towers.

"A majority of the steel will be recycled," said project officer Jonathan Vanho of the Air Force's 45th Civil Engineering Squadron. The rest will be taken to the landfill at the air station.

Work at the site is expected to be completed in two months, said Kevin Hooper, manager of the demolition project with Civil Engineering.

The cost of maintaining the towers and safety concerns about leaving the structures untended forced the Air Force to level the pad.

"We are demolishing it so that it doesn't corrode and become a safety problem. So we have to take the buildings down before nature takes them down," Hooper said.

The cost per year to fight the corrosion from the salty sea air would be $100,000, Hooper estimated.


Pad 36A was toppled at 10:11 a.m. Photo credit: Ben Cooper/Spaceflight Now
 
The site could be reborn someday to launch more rockets.

"There are programs that are looking for places to launch, but none have been selected. It is a potential site for another launch program. That is part of the reason to get the towers out of the way, too, to make it more attractive to future programs," Hooper said.

Space Exploration Technologies had considered using the pad for its Falcon rockets. But SpaceX has since signed a deal to use the former Titan pad at Complex 40.

For more on the history of Complex 36, you can read Spaceflight Now stories written following the final launches from each pad.

More images of the toppling can be found here.