For sale: Three Nasa shuttle launch platforms - collection only

The space equipment clearout will also see spare tyres and other items up for grabs

Heather Saul
Thursday 22 August 2013 16:55 BST
Comments
Nasa are selling three giant launch platforms originally used for the Apollo moon missions
Nasa are selling three giant launch platforms originally used for the Apollo moon missions

Nasa is selling three giant launch pads originally developed for the Apollo moon missions, along with other bits of space equipment they deem surplus to requirement.

The US space agency are currently considering competing bids to take over a shuttle launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center and added the three mobile launch platforms to its list of excess equipment available to private industry on Tuesday.

The Kennedy Space Center launch pad has fast become the most contentious and highest profile piece of shuttle equipment for sale, and has attracted bids from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, co-founder of Paypal and chief executive of electric car company Tesla Motors.

Billionaire Bezos and Muskare are vying for Launch Complex 39A. Nasa intends to keep the second shuttle launch pad, 39B, for a new heavy-lift rocket under development called the Space Launch System.

Nasa sells off around $400 million (£256 million) of equipment no longer need annually, including electronics, test equipment, vehicles, hardware, and aircraft parts.

On occasion, they also auction historic items to museums, according to The Telegraph, such as tyres from the space shuttle and space suit gloves.

Ideally, Nasa wants a commercial launch company to take over one or more of the massive steel platforms, which were originally built in 1967 to support the Apollo moon program's Saturn rockets. The 25-foot (7.6-meter) tall platforms were later modified for the space shuttles, which flew from 1981 until 2011.

A Nasa spokeswoman said they are also "looking to gauge interest" in other ways the launch platforms could be used, which provided power and umbilical connections and had open sections for flames and rocket exhaust to pass through.

Proposals for the launch pads are due in on 6 Sept.

Recycling the platforms, which measure 160 feet by 135 feet (49 by 41 meters) is another option, a solicitation on Nasa's procurement website shows.

Space Florida, a state-backed economic development agency will take over the shuttle's runway. They plan to make the runway and support facilities available to a variety of commercial companies, including privately owned XCOR Aerospace, which is developing a two-person, suborbital spaceship called Lynx that takes off and lands like an airplane.

Another potential customer is Stratolaunch Systems, an orbital space vehicle backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Musk's Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, California, wants 39A to launch its Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets. The privately owned firm, also known as SpaceX, already flies from a leased launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, located just south of the Kennedy Space Center.

The first Falcon 9 rocket flight from a new launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is scheduled for next month. The company has a backlog of more than 50 launches, including 10 missions to fly cargo for NASA to the International Space Station.

SpaceX also is developing a version of its Dragon cargo ship to fly astronauts.

Startup Blue Origin, a Kent, Washington, firm owned by Bezos, submitted an alternative proposal to NASA to run pad 39A as a multi-user facility.

Both firms say they are ready to take over maintenance and operations of the launch pad on Oct. 1.

United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, did not bid on the shuttle's launch pad, but has publicly endorsed Blue Origin's proposals. The company, which has a lucrative monopoly on launching U.S. military satellites, is facing its first competition for the business from rival launch pad bidder SpaceX.

The main NASA facilities that will remain are the shuttle launch pad 39B, plus various hangars for the Orion deep space capsule to be launched by NASA's heavy lift rocket, due to begin test flights in 2017.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Video: Spacewalk outside the International Space Station

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in