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[i]According to an article published this week on an internal Boeing Company website, the six-story maintenance stand once used to build and repair the orbiters at Palmdale, California, was demolished on July 14. The article said that the stand was destroyed as efforts to dispose of surplus shuttle equipment and facilities around the country are stepped up. Boeing photographs show heavy machinery turning the giant metal stand into a pile of metal scrap. It looks like the remnants of an old Erector set spilled onto the floor. "The demolition of such a large, nearly iconic, piece of Orbiter build and modifications history sends the message that we are moving towards retiring the Space Shuttle and related facilities and equipment," Al Hoffman, Boeing director of proprietary operations for Palmdale/Edwards Air Force Base, said. According to Boeing, about 1.4 million pounds of "original manufacturing and assembly tooling" equipment stored at Palmdale have been destroyed. A few pieces -- like the Shuttle Escape System Test Vehicle capsule, an early simulator for a cockpit ejection system -- were donated to Palmdale. Space Shuttle Columbia included this ejection system for the first few missions, but it was later removed. The article said that the maintenance tower, called the Space Shuttle Orbiter Aft "513" work stand, was moved from the orbiter hangar in Building 150, where it was in storage, to an outside area for destruction. "It's a bit sad to many of us here to see this work stand go to scrap, but everyone remains focused on flying our final mission safer than those preceding," Hoffman said. Boeing spokesman Ed Memi, who authored of the story, said that Boeing had originally wanted to give the stand to the city of Palmdale, which is interested in building a museum to the space shuttles. But the stand was just too big, he said.[/i]
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