Historic NASA Launch Platform Will Be Demolished | Hacker News Reader

Historic NASA Launch Platform Will Be Demolished

gizmodo.com

55 pointspseudolus27 comments

Parking spaces yes, but there are far more complicated issues. Look at the size of this thing. Just imagine the maintenance needed to keep it safe. Who knows what environmental evils are in there (asbestos, oils, paints). Either find the millions per year to keep it as a museum piece, or demolish it safely now. Only then does the question becomes what will that space be used for. If you have no other use, ya, it can be a parking lot. It is not being demolished to create the parking lot. It is being demolished because it needs to be demolished. To what use the then-vacant land shall be put is a different story.

The title says the word "historic", and it was definitely used in history, but I don't see any reason for anyone to be sentimental about this thing.

>> I don't see any reason for anyone to be sentimental about this thing.

I wouldn't say that anywhere near nasa. Lots of people worked in these structures doing amazing things. They probably have very fond memories of their time with them.

These are all great points, but perhaps NASA could capture and archive enough images that it could be recreated in the future for virtual experiences using 3D reconstruction. The only thing you're out for such an effort is someone's time and S3 storage costs.

The article says there are two more of the same model still running.

I should've been more clear. I was aware, and I think it's a good idea even if they're going to scrap this platform. Mea culpa.

The article isn't really clear, so: this is just about the platform, which is one of three built for the Apollo program and then reused for the Space Shuttle. They are demolishing one of them (MLP-2), because they still have two of the "old model" (MLP-1 and MLP-3) and soon two new ones (ML-1 and ML-2). The article doesn't distinguish between the platform and the crawler-transporter which is below it in the photo - those are still needed (and also in the National Register of Historic Places), so not going away any time soon...

This is the important bit I needed to know to not really care about this news. The crawlers are cool. The launchpads are things rockets sit on which can also sit on the crawlers.

Note that the mobile launch platform (MLP or ML) is different than the Crawler Transporter - https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/crawler...

The Crawler-Transporter is the thing that carried the mobile launch platform.

Sounds like its just sitting there taking up space and ought to be decommissioned, and its too big for a museum piece. Documenting the history should be enough. This is a good thing, because it means the area is busy, and that means more stuff going to space.

I think the idea that they are tearing it apart to make use for parking spaces is a bit overblown. It's not parking spaces for cars, it's parking spaces for these platforms, which they are building more of. Due to their shear size, there's only so much room to store such things.

Lots of space down at NASA/CCAS, and nearly all of the original launch pads are still intact (but in a state of decay). There is historical value to everything, but it must be weighed against the need for modern facilities. Sure there were some historic launches from MLP-2, but IMHO that does not justify turning it into a museum. There's a nice museum (and rocket garden) just a few miles away at the Visitor Center.

The article says the old MLPs were phased out because they couldn't support the weight of the Space Launch System, but from the figures I can find, SLS isn't as heavy as the Saturn V was. (And also doesn't boost as much payload to either LEO or TLI as Saturn V did. Sigh.)

They've aged since then. Maybe they can't support as much weight today as they once could.

I say good! I am tired of hearing about the “historic” space program. It is a reminder of what we have not achieved in the decades since then. It’s time to focus on what will be done, not what was done

They could make a killing creating "souvenirs" from the scrap metal. I'm sure many people would love to own a little piece of history. But where to store all of the pieces?!

I assume the apollo mobile launcher was the inspiration for that star wars vehicle: https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/databank_sandcrawle...

Or maybe Frank Herbert’s Dune was?

... ♫ you don't know what you've got til it's gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot ♫...

What a missed opportunity to transform it into an open-air museum.

Is it? The thing is huge - and unless its safe enough for kids to crawl all around the inside of it (which I doubt), how exactly would you make it into a museum, when it's so large you can't even see hardly any of it?

Are people supposed to just stand on the ground and look up?

Also, where would you put it? Popular museums are usually in reasonably settled areas, there's just no space for something this large.

Not to mention, how would you even get it there?

Lots of warships are now museums, and those were never intended to be kid safe. Just rope off the sketchier bits and tell people to be careful. Not everything needs to be totally safe. A little danger builds character, whether it's falling off the monkeybars or knocking your head when jumping through a narrow hatch in a submarine (that hurts!)

Us taxpayers dodged a giant museum-shaped bullet. Seriously, it's great to have historic stuff, but we have more of these things, and they aren't exactly pinnacles of architecture, noted cultural venues etc.

Can Elon take it off their hands?

It wouldn’t be useful to them. Among the modifications they made to pad 39A, SpaceX built their horizontal assembly building right where the crawlerway approaches the pad.

Probably not. Falcons are assembled and transported horizontally, thus don't need a mobile launch platform. Starship will probably be too big for it, and will probably need its own solution for assembly given its unusual launch and landing profile.

So far the SpaceX Starship solution seems to be commercially available cranes, commercially available "roll lifts" (flat beds with a lot of independently controlled wheels [1]), and simple launch sites that don't move around on land.

I have to imagine that SpaceX's solution is orders of magnitude cheaper than maintaining this giant custom vehicle NASA made.

[1] https://i.redd.it/wo6buoppcov31.png

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