posted 07-30-2011 03:08 PM               

NASA closes MILA: Apollo antenna station tracked every space shuttle launch

With no more radio signals to be relayed from launching or landing space shuttles, NASA this week slewed for a final time one of two 30-foot dish antennas at the Merritt Island Launch Annex, or MILA, tracking and data station at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The antenna's reorientation from the horizontal to the vertical came as part of a ceremony to close the station after 45 years of service.

Established during the Apollo program and responsible for tracking radio transmissions from every shuttle launch for 30 years, the MILA station on Thursday (July 28) became a part of space history itself...