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Author
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Topic: Demolition of Cape Canveral pads and buildings
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Fezman92
Member Posts: 1031
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 05-05-2010 02:00 PM
   
Thanks for the info. A few years back, I went to Houston and did their Level 9 tour. It was incredible, they took you to the buoyancy pool, some of the labs, a NASA staff cafeteria for lunch but the coolest part was that you got to go into the first Houston Mission Control room. With regular tours, you go and you see it with a pane of glass in front of you but with the Level 9 one you got to go into the room itself. I have a photo of me sitting in the Flight Director's chair. That is National Historic Landmark I think so that should be there as long as NASA is there. |
SpaceSteve
Member Posts: 428
From: San Antonio TX, USA
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 05-05-2010 10:34 PM
Just think how it would be if the Romans and the Egyptians had the same philosophy as we do here in the United States.  You can not learn anything from your past when you do nothing but tear it down! |
Matt T
Member Posts: 1368
From: Chester, Cheshire, UK
Registered: May 2001
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posted 05-06-2010 08:05 AM
I'd be curious to know the reasoning behind tearing it down vs. simply leaving it in place with a strong chain-link fence around it. What harm would it have done? |
ejectr
Member Posts: 1751
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 05-06-2010 07:14 PM
To quote Janice..."take another little piece of my heart now baby". |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 05-06-2010 11:53 PM
Courtesy JL Pickering (Retro Space Images), here is a look inside the Mercury Control Center, circa 2008. 
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ejectr
Member Posts: 1751
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 05-07-2010 05:38 AM
I guess my question would be how they would let a place that is on the National Historic Register get like that? I thought if places are on the register, they have to be maintained like the colonial houses on the common in Lexington and Concord, MA are. |
RGW
Member Posts: 40
From: Long Island, New York, USA
Registered: Sep 2004
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posted 07-31-2010 10:46 AM
As pieces of the old building were eaten away, more than fifty years of space history came to completion. Earlier this week I saw a NASACast video (dated 7/1/2010). With an upbeat musical background, NASA's narrator tried to put a positive spin on the destruction of the Mercury Mission Control Center building at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. I was saddened that this original facility (from which all of the Mercury missions and the first three Gemini missions were controlled) was demolished instead of preserved or restored. I was perplexed that NASA's justification appeared to be more "tourist-focused" than "history-focused." NASA's narrator stated that "the building's glory faded and its position as a tourist stop ended." I was disappointed that the decision was made to construct a Disney-esque "re-creation" of the Mercury Mission Control Center consoles at the KSC Visitor Complex instead of using those available funds for a "historical restoration" of the actual Mission Control Center which was "right there" at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. And I was a little embarrassed for NASA as its narrator described the "hulking" Caterpillar equipment demolishing the structure as looking like "angry beasts from a science fiction movie" that "consumed the structure bit by bit until nothing was left but the slab where it stood." I know this is just the latest in a long line of demolitions at KSC (where historic launch complexes and gantries have been routinely abandoned - and after being "long ravaged by time and the elements" are then disassembled and/or destroyed). But if so many of the actual facilities have been obliterated within the first fifty (50) years of our country's spaceflight history, who is making the policy decisions about the need to preserve the remaining real "space places" and artifacts for future generations? Anyone else have a reaction to this podcast? Editor's note: Threads merged. |
gliderpilotuk
Member Posts: 3398
From: London, UK
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 07-31-2010 11:44 AM
As pieces of the old building were eaten away, more than fifty years of space history came to completion. That says it all doesn't it? "Came to completion" = "all evidence eliminated".I'm not sure why the building was scheduled for demolition (dangerous condition? re-use of site?) but I'd certainly agree that the "disneyesque" recreation at the KSCVC is as sterile and context-less as most other things that the center has to offer. Moving historical objects from their original locations with the expectation that people will appreciate them misses the point: context and atmosphere are everything. A bit like moving London Bridge to Lake Havasu, Az.  |
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