Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

OLD TITAN LAUNCH PAD GANTRY AT CAPE KNOCKED DOWN

"The landscape of Cape Canaveral is changing, a fact illustrated Sunday when a Titan-era gantry was blasted to the ground to clear the historic Air Force launch pad for new commercial rockets."
....
"There's approximately 13 million pounds of steel that will be recycled, and that recycle value will be used to pay for the demolition efforts. So the project is self-funding. No taxpayer dollars will be used to remove this mobile service tower, and we'll actually get some credits which we can use to restore the area and to demolish some other facilities from the Titan program."
...
"He noted the pad's the concrete deck and flame duct, the water deluge system, the site's electrical system, the lightning towers and the instrumentation bay beneath the pad will be reused, and the "Ready Building" at the complex's entrance has been refurbished for SpaceX office space."
...
" "Design is nearly complete, the building has been ordered and the foundation construction will start in June," Buzza said. "It is 75 feet wide by 225 feet long and 50 feet tall. It can handle a single Falcon 9 or Falcon 9 Heavy."

The first rocket is expected to arrive at the Cape by year's end.

"We process horizontally in the hangar and roll out and go vertical on a transporter erector," Buzza explained. "Our goal is to be able to roll out, erect and launch within an hour. We won't achieve this on the first few launches as we will take extra time to make sure everything is just right, but as we stabilize the design and work out the bugs we will work towards that goal." "
http://www.spacex.com/media.php?page=64

Of course, as these things generally go, we probably lucky to get Falcon 9 launched by early 2009. But that will be cool.

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