Gizmodo
We have seen many spectacular demolitions, but the destruction of the Mobile Service Structure at NASA/USAF's Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, is perhaps the most striking of them all: instead of imploding down, the whole ultra-strong metal structure falls to it side and actually seems to bounce on the ground—shattering cameras a mile away—looking almost intact after the dust clears up. The sound, even from the distance, is deafening.
We have seen many spectacular demolitions, but the destruction of the Mobile Service Structure at NASA/USAF's Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, is perhaps the most striking of them all: instead of imploding down, the whole ultra-strong metal structure falls to it side and actually seems to bounce on the ground—shattering cameras a mile away—looking almost intact after the dust clears up. The sound, even from the distance, is deafening.The Launch Complex 40—and 41—was the base for the largest US expendable rocket, the Titan IV. It started operations in 1965 with Titan IIIC rockets, and it was home for the legendary Mars Viking (1975) and Voyager missions, which has been crossing our solar system since 1977. The site was also the launch pad for the failed Mars Observer mission, as well as the successful Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, which departed Earth on October 15, 1997.
The last launch was for a Lacrosse-5 reconnaissance satellite, launched on April 30, 2005 on board a Titan IVB rocket.
Comments
why in the hell have destroyed that? Would it be too hard to take it apart and recycle?
Must not have been on fire for long enough. I've heard that unless a building is burning on jetfuel for about an hour, it'll collapse on its own. No explosions necesarry.
Shattering or shaking the cameras?
That looks like an incredibly resilient structure!
Have fun breaking THAT thing up.
It's nice how the sound from the explosions gets to the camera just as you see the structure hit the ground. Nice effect.
Nix the unless.
Launch complex fall down go boom
@alpayerturkmen: Yes. Cuz disassembling a building tall enough to have it's own weather system in the top most reaches is just like sorting pop cans. The idea is to blow it to pieces then sort them out there. They "may" be recycled but there places setup to recycle pieces of metal as big as buildings are rather far and few between.
@alpayerturkmen: I'd forget about the cost... demolition is used in order to bring a structure down quickly and safely. If you had a bunch of hippies, sorting the materials into recycling boxes the process would never end, and lots of greensters would get hurt.
No other uses for it? Real estate that valuable down there?
@TheCyberBob: Well put Bob.
@qbrad: Sarcasm or idiot?
@Y2KGTP: Do you really want them to be launching stuff to Mars from a structure made in the 1960's? I mean, what did they accomplish back then that we haven't made 50 times better since?
What? The Moon?
Crap.
I was surprised they didn't take the opportunity to snip it into slightly smaller chunks while they were at it.
Though, rigging charges to cut all those bars would probably give anyone a headache.
well, have fun taking that down now. it would have been much more effective of stripping it down to the skeleton and blasting it.
now they have to deal with all sorts of crap (asbestos and other stuff)
who is going to be crazy enough to go up to the top with some torches and start cutting? ( the highest reaching hydraulic shears only reach about 110' or so)
I'd site my sources but my experience in the field should suffice.
so there!
*pushes button*
"Implosion? but, i thought you said..."
@drewdrawsYOU!: I must be an idiot. Cos it wasn't sarcasm. And you know that old addage, "They don't make things like they used to."? This is one of the things that won't be made as solidly as it was back in the day. So I'd rather prefer something that has stood multiple hurricanes and tumultuous seasons and is still this difficult to demolish to launch me to Mars.
@B1663R: bah. NASA and the Air Force should have build a megabot with huge lasers and arms to cut it and crush it on the spot.
The irony is that all that metal will go to the communist space program.
Yep, cut up, torched or ripped off. Scrapped to barge or containers and off to China's foundries to be used for the frames to launch moon mission and ICBM weapon platforms.
All for a (weakened) buck. Your tax dollars at work against you.
@alpayerturkmen: Oh, the materials will get recycled. It's just easier (and safer) to turn a large hunk of debris into lots of little hunks of debris than it is to turn an intact structure into scrap.
Is this actually what they planned? Doesn't seem to have accomplished much.
That thing is huge, the people and cars next to it look like ants!
Hooray!
We've finally defeated the Space Age!
We have been greeted as liberators in the new Dark Ages.
They shoulda put windows/outside walls on it and tricked it out as high end condos with the highest. geek. factor. ever.
Watching launches from the roof party house would be sweet too: "I CAN'T HEAR YOU NOW, THERE'S A LAUNCH GOING ON DOWN THE STREET. I'LL HAVE TO CALL YOU BACK"
Silly me, I actually thought it was going to bounce like the title teased.
@qbrad: Prolly would have been cheaper to fly a remote controlled 737 into the face of the structure. I heard we had a few of those lying around...
@James: No it doesn't. If you had eyes, you might notice that the bottom hits the ground before the entire structure tips over. That happens seconds before the shockwave, so that is where the shockwave comes from. Man, learn to observe.
oh, that wasn't supposed to be a rocket launch?
Is it just me or did that thing in fact not bounce at all.. Where's the bounce?
@trendspotter: They are ants, trendspotter, they are ants.
@nikko1221: I have a friend who lives down there, and thats exactly what he said during one of the shuttle launches.
If its not toxic, can they drag (parts of) the structure into the ocean for a new reef?
@Jesus Diaz: They did, but they can't show that in the video, of course. This will all be cleaned up by the weekend, the construction workers are just photoshopped in.
bush will see this and come out in an hour or so and say "it mighta baen terrorists"
They should've done a bombimg run with Tomahawks...
It would have been a good practice run and a lot more fun & fireworks...!
"the largest US expendable rocket, the Titan IV"
The largest? Am I the only one who remembers Saturn V? THE largest US expendable rocket? The one we used to get to the moon?
@qbrad: @phantam: I think it's funny that all the people including people who probably built the thing got together, figured out where to place charges, double checked that, took the time to place the charges, double check the placement, and yet it didn't fall exactly like it was supposed to. I would say this goes to show that even one mistake can throw off a planned demo, which should have been easy as there weren't people working in the thing nearly 24 hours a day, but I am guessing someone will say I'm wrong. You see, this was MEANT to go wrong to disprove people. Just like a few days after Rosie O'Donnell got on TV and said fire has never melted steel(don't tell that to blacksmiths), a tanker carrying gas "crashed" into a steel bridge and melted it. But you see, the genius government we have planned all of this to disprove Rosie.
@ripfire4: Saturn V was a multistage system. Titan IV is a single stage that can accept a 2nd stage, but doesn't need it. It is also the most powerful unmanned rocket.
@Jesus Diaz: Sounds like a the makings of a good Giz reader video production contest.
They shoulda just used a sawzall
Complex 40 ... sounds like a certifiable medical condition.
Comment on NASA Launch Complex Gets Demolished, Bounces Back This looks like a failed demolition to me. Now instead of a pile that can be (relatively) safely dealt with, they have a towering partially- intact structure that has unknown stability. How the heck are they going to deal with it now?
"the largest US expendable rocket, the Titan IV"
So are you saying that the Saturn V was smaller than the Titan IV, or that the Saturn was non-expendable?
According to NASA, "The three-stage Saturn V was taller than a 36-story building. It was the largest, most powerful rocket ever launched." 111m (363 ft.) tall.
The Titan IV is a mere 51.00 m (167.00 ft) tall.
Sloppy reporting.
@aelver: or the title of a really bad movie.
It didn't look to me like it bounced. All I saw was a camera shake and the structure rolled.
Who's to say they aren't going to recycle the pieces once it's properly pulverized? Maybe they'll sell off little bite-sized chunks with certificates noting that "this was a piece of the launch pad used to launch Vikings, Voyagers, Mars Observer, Cassini-Huygens and many more..."
That would be one way to raise some much needed NASAbucks...
I don't know about the bouncing... but I live about 15 miles away, and I heard it.
Man, the sound of the blast totally killed a bird too. You can see two birds fly away, and one more just sort of start to fly and then fall into the brush. Damn you NASA!
@Bob_of_Mars: Wow, you sure come off as an ass with that comment. Kudos.
There were two detonations, two "booms". The sound was from two detonations, not the structure hitting the ground.
I would wager that the audio was NOT shifted in the video. If the first "boom" was from the tower hitting the ground, as you say, and you estimate the distance by the (speed of) sound, the camera would have been about 850 meters from the tower. The camera is obviously much further away.
There was actually a delay of about 4.8 seconds from flash to us hearing the sound of the explosion. That puts the camera about 1600 meters away. 850 vs 1600 meters? You decide. The safe distance from an implosion using cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (for steel) is much further than concrete explosives.
Dear Giz, is there a way for me to make a killfile for commenters?
@alpayerturkmen:
"why in the hell have destroyed that? Would it be too hard to take it apart and recycle?"
Squatters. I had a friend who once lived in an abandoned water tower. Could you imagine having complex 40 all to yourself.
Passing the Saturn that still stands in Huntsville, Alabama, it looks very UNimpressive to me. Plus, I've been next to the one in Houston, too.
I somehow had expected the empire state building ... (childhood eyes).
Why must Americans blow everything up? Freakn morons.
@Guy-Fawkes:
NASA Facility Tour
Ah, I love the smell of napalm in the morning, specially if it's to burn smartypants who think they know what they are talking about because they saw Tom Hanks in Apollo XIII.
Do your homework, then write your critiques. Oh, and sloppy reporting? Houston, you have a problem.
@workingonyourinvoice: Nice Family Guy reference...
@Jesus Diaz: