New Life for Old Pad

May 06, 2008

There are gentler ways to do the job, but nothing gets it done as quickly -- and with less risk to personnel -- than using explosives. So says the United States Air Force , which is overseeing cleanup of 13 million pounds of rubble, previously known as Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 40.

Built in the 1990s for the heavy-lift Titan 4 rockets, the pad’s mobile service structure, which included a clean room for preparing satellites for launch, was reduced to scrap metal a week ago to clear the way for a new breed of spaceship. Internet billionaire-turned-rocketeer Elon Musk's new firm, Space Exploration Technologies, has a contract with the Air Force to take over Complex 40 for the still-under-development Falcon 9 boosters.

SpaceX, which recently won NASA’s nod for a plum launch services contract, intends to redefine the landscape of space by offering rides into orbit at a fraction of today’s rates, which run as high as $10,000 per pound.

The California-based firm, funded by Musk, the creator of PayPal financial services, has a separate NASA contract to demonstrate cargo delivery services to the International Space Station.

SpaceX has flown two of its smaller Falcon 1 rockets from Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Complex 40 is expected to be the firm’s East Coast base for its heavy-lift Falcon 9. The first rocket is expected to arrive later this year.

“Out with the old, in with the new,” said 45th Space Wing commander Brig. Gen. Susan Helms, who conducted a ceremonial countdown to the April 27 implosion.

A former astronaut, Helms is more accustomed to countdowns for space launches, not implosions of their ground towers. Complex 40 has served Titan rocket programs dating back to 1965. The final flight from the pad took place in April 2005. The missions included launch of the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft, the failed Mars Observer spacecraft and dozens of military reconnaissance and communications spacecraft.

A new mobile tower, once considered the largest moving structure in the world, was added in 1992. It featured a huge clean room for preparing sensitive satellites for launch.

If nothing else, bringing down the tower is a lot less expensive than launching payloads into space: AMEC Earth and Environmental is managing the demolition and cleanup in exchange for selling rights to the 6,500 tons of scrap steel.