10 January 2026 In 2018, two historic test stands were demolished at the Marshall Space Center in Alabama, which once prepared the giant Saturn V and space shuttles for flight.
"Test complex for engines and structures" (T-tower, 1957 year) and "Dynamic test stand" (1964 year) have not been used for decades, however, it was here that NASA engineers tested and perfected the mighty Saturn V rocket, which took astronauts to the moon. Dynamic high stand 111 m was the only place, where the fully assembled Saturn V could be tested before launch. Due to the impossibility of returning the rocket after launch, any malfunction had to be found right here. Later, the tower was used to test components of the Space Shuttle, and in the 2000s it became a tower for experiments in microgravity. The Neutral Buoyancy Simulator is planned to be eliminated along with the towers ("Simulator of neutral buoyancy") - a giant pool, where astronauts trained for the Skylab missions and the repair of the Hubble telescope.
The demolition of the towers is part of a large-scale decommissioning program 25 obsolete NASA facilities. The destruction of dangerous and unnecessary buildings will save millions in their maintenance, and will also free up space for safe modernization and future investment in space exploration. At the same time, NASA took care of memory preservation - with the help of LiDAR technologies and 360-degree photography, high-precision 3D models of these objects were created, which will allow future generations to "visit" them in virtual space.
Source: https://universemagazine.com