February 9, 2004

Launch Umbilical Tower 1

From Florida Today comes this story of a tower and the efforts of some people to save it. bq. NASA delays tower destruction Preservationists will try to save historic pad CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA delayed plans to dispose of the hazardous remnants of a historic Apollo launch tower this week to see whether a preservation group can come up with enough money to turn the gantry into a national monument. Since 1983, the old Apollo launch umbilical tower has sat in a secure area at Kennedy Space Center. In the near future, the structures will be decontaminated and then cut up for scrap, if it can't be saved. Photo by Michael R. Brown, FLORIDA TODAY bq. Known as Launch Umbilical Tower 1, the gantry was the starting point for eight Apollo and Skylab flights, including the flight that took astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon in July 1969. This is a hard one to call - the tower was dismantled in 1983 and moved to a storage yard. Parts of it have been put into museums so what's left is not the complete structure. Still, this is the place where people left to go walk on the moon. This is history in the flesh... Posted by DaveH at February 9, 2004 8:57 AM