Story Continues BelowSpecially formed explosive charges were placed at strategic support locations on the 1st and 9th levels of the mobile service tower to break it into three sections upon detonation. The explosions were timed to cause the twoer to fall down and then topple toward the north, away from the concrete launch pad and construction work currently underway by SpaceX.

The explosions alone didn't cause the tower to fall. Rather, they destroyed key support locations within the MST and then the force of gravity caused the 265 foot tall gantry to collapse.

45th Space Wing commanding officer, Brig. General Susan Helms, herself a former space shuttle and station astronaut, called out the final ten seconds before the charges were detonated on schedule at 9 a.m. EDT, sending an Earth-shaking thunderclap rolling across the Canaveral landscape.

It took just six seconds for the tower, built in the early 1990's to suport the Air Force's Titan IV launch vehicle, to crumple to the ground in a heap of twisted metal. Nearly all of the debris will be recycled for use in other construction projects.

"There is a significant amount of recyclable metals in the MST, and with the recycled values recovered from this demolition, the Air Force is able to fund this demolition and other demolitions as part of the Titan deactivation" said project officer Jonathan Vanho of the 45th Civil Engineer Squadron.

AMEC Earth and Environmental, along with subcrontractor ManTECH/SRS, managed today's demolition project for the Air Force. The company also conducted the safe and successful demolition of the two mobile launch towers at the former Atlas-Centaur Space Launch Complex 36 last year.

The demolition projects at the two launch complexes and other locations at Cape Canaveral and Patrick AFB is part of an ongoing effort to remove un-needed or unused facilities before they become safety concerns and to eliminate the cost of maintaining them.

Other Titan facilities have already been dismantled following the conclusion of the Titan program and as the Atlas 5 rocket took up home at SLC-40's sister complex, SLC-41, the other former Titan pad.

The old Titan Vertical Integration Building at the far south end of the SLC-40/41 industrial area was systematically dismantled last year. The building, in which several Titan rockets could be vertically integrated at the same time, was in some respects a precursor to the Saturn V's and now space shuttle's Vertical Assembly Bulding.

Explosive demolition was considered for the VIB. However, the building sat on a relatively small man-made island, which would make cleanup a logistical challenge. More importantly, a number of active launch support facilities are nearby, such as the Atlas 5 Spaceflight Operations Center.

Instead, it was decided to have workers physically take the bulding apart piece by piece. The more dangerous procedure took about six months to complete. While it is more dangerous to have people around a building that's being torn down, the Air Force determined that was the most practical method, unlike the MST.

Tow more large processing buldings remain from the Titan program. The Solid Motor Assembly Building (SMAB), where the solid rocket boosters for the older Titan III rocket were assembled, will be demolished.

The Solid Motor Assembly and Readiness Facility (SMARF) was built to handle the large solid rocket boosters for the TItan IV. It's still in good condition and will be turned over for use by the United Launch Alliance Atlas rocket (some reports say SpaceX will lease the facility instead).

Over the next six months, the rubble will be cut up into 4-foot sections and hauled away by truck. Meanwhile, SpaceX will continue refurbishing the launch pad for Falcon 9.

A five-story, 225 foot long, 75 foot wide assembly building will soon be erected to the south of the launch pad. Inside, the Falcon 9 rockets will be assembled, similar to the horizontal processing of the United Launch Alliance Delta IV.

SpaceX believes that considerable time and cost-savings can be achieved by conducting most prelaunch processing and payload integration in an enclosed horizontal facility, then rolling the rocket to the launch pad, erecting it and launching. Eventually, the company hopes to be able to roll out the vehicle and launch it within one hour.

SpaceX will also be installing a 125,000 gallon liquid oxygen storage facility and two 28,000 gallon RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel storage tanks as well as various nitrogen and helium storage facilities.

Not everything at the pad is being thrown away. A lot of infrastructure left behind from the Titan days will be reused. These include the lightning protection system, the electrical and water supply distribution, the ready building beneath the pad as well as several outlying support structures.

The first Falcon 9 is scheduled for delivery to Cape Canaveral later this year. While most missions booked on SpaceX's launch manifest are for Department of Defense and commercial customers, eventually NASA will come to rely on the Falcon as one of the vehicles in its stable of launch options.

SpaceX is already one of the companies with NASA contracts to build and launch an unmanned vehicle with the capability to resupply the International Space Station under the Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) program. Falcon 9 will be the launch vehicle tasked with the duty of lofting SpaceX's supply vehicle.

Those launches will take place from SLC-40. Additionally, NASA awarded SpaceX a contract last week permitting the company to bid on other NASA launches, including scientific and interplanetary exploration missions. Many of those will also fly from SLC-40.

So while the launch complex's Titan days are over, and a significant amount of space history relegated to memory, the life of SLC-40 is by no means over. The coming years should see another golden age for the storied launch complex, with newer and more exciting missions getting their start from the same concrete launch pad that hosted its first launch in 1965.

Indeed, Space Launch Complex 40 has already had served an active life.

Complex 40 was built for the Titan IIIC program and was operated from the program's first launch in 1965 until the last TITAN IV launch on 30 April 2005. It hosted a total of 55 historic missions over the years including the Mars Observer interplanetary mission in 1992, the Cassini mission to Saturn launched in 1997, six MILSTAR communications satellite, and numerous Defense Support Program payloads.

"For almost four decades, Complexes 40 and 41 were the backbone of the Air Force's heavy-lift capability at Cape Canaveral," said Mark Cleary, 45th Space Wing historian.

Previously considered the largest moving structure in the world, Complex 40's Mobile Service Tower was replaced in 1992 and included a state-of-the-art satellite processing facility for Department of Defense and National Reconnaissance Office payloads. It housed one of the largest class 100,000 clean room facilities in the industry and when rolling to the launch position, it moved at a stately pace of 40 feet per minute.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SLC-40 AND 41

These complexes were constructed as part of a $39 million project to build an Integrate-Transfer-Launch (ITL) facility at the north end of Cape Canaveral in the early 1960s. Both complexes were originally designed to support TITAN IIIC space missions, which began on 18 June 1965. Following the first TITAN IIIC launch from Complex 40 on June 18th, Complex 41 supported its first TITAN IIIC launch on 21 December 1965.

Over the next three decades, the complexes supported a wide variety of military space missions involving TITAN IIIC, TITAN 34D and TITAN IV vehicles. Complex 41 had an additional distinction as the TITAN IIIE/CENTAUR launch site for NASA's VIKING missions to Mars in 1975 and NASA's VOYAGER missions to the outer planets in 1977. Though Complex 41 was deactivated at the end of 1977, it was upgraded for the TITAN IV program in the 1986-88 period under a $57 million refurbishment project.

Complex 41 supported its first TITAN IV launch on 14 June 1989. Between June 1990 and June 1993, Complex 40 was almost completely rebuilt under a $425 million renovation project. Complex 40 supported its first TITAN IV/CENTAUR launch on 7 February 1994.

By the end of October 1998, the complexes had supported a total of 72 TITAN IIIC, TITAN IIIE, TITAN 34D and TITAN IV missions. (Section prepared by Mark C. Cleary, Chief Historian 45 Space Wing Office of History)

The final Titan rocket to fly from Cape Canaveral launched three years ago this month, on April 29, 2005. Titan IV B-30 carried the top-secret NRO L-16 satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

(The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)


COMPLEX 40 PAD AREA LOOKING EAST 2 January 1964

COMPLEX 41 26 August 1966

Air Force TITAN IV/CENTAUR sits on Complex 41 24 August 1996