Abandoned in Place: Preserving America's Space History

175 Pages·2016·21.489 MB·English

by  Roland Miller

Abandoned in Place

ABANDONED IN PLACE
Preserving America’s Space History
R O L A N D M IL L E R
Foreword by Roger D. Launius
Prologue by Bob Thall
Introduction by Betsy Fahlman
Essays by Craig Covault, Pamela Melroy, and Beth Laura O’Leary
University of New Mexico Press ■ Albuquerque
© 2016 by Roland Miller
All rights reserved. Published 2016
Printed in China
21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5 6
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Miller, Roland, 1958–
Abandoned in place : preserving America’s space history / by Roland Miller ;
foreword by Roger D. Launius ; prologue by Bob Thall ; introduction by Betsy
Fahlman ; essays by Craig Covault, Pamela Melroy, and Beth Laura O’Leary.
pages cm
isbn 978-0-8263-5625-3 (cloth : alk. paper) —
isbn 978-0-8263-5626-0 (electronic)
1. Launch complexes (Astronautics)—Florida—Cape Canaveral—History.
2. Astronautics—United States—History. 3. Abandoned buildings—
Florida—Cape Canaveral. I. Launius, Roger D. II. Title.
TL4027.F5M55 2016
629.409759’27—dc23
2015007796
Cover photograph: Launch Ring, Launch Complex 34, Apollo Saturn,
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, 1990. Courtesy of the author.
Designed by Lila Sanchez and Felicia Cedillos
Ray Bradbury’s “Abandon in Place” is reprinted by permission of
Don Congdon Associates, Inc. © 1981 by Ray Bradbury
This book is dedicated to all the men and women who played a part in
getting the United States to the moon and back.
for Amy
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Contents
Abandon in Place | viii CHAPTER 3
Ray Bradbury Research Facilities | 49
CHAPTER 4
FOREWORD
Gemini Titan | 75
Recapturing Our Youth | xi
Roger D. Launius
CHAPTER 5
Full Circle with the Cape’s Mighty Launch Pads 40 and 41 | 91
PROLOGUE
Craig Covault
Then and Now | xvii
Bob Thall
CHAPTER 6
Apollo Saturn | 103
Preface and Acknowledgments | xxi
Remembering Pad 34 | 112
INTRODUCTION Pamela Melroy
Shooting for the Moon: The Fine Art of Space | 1
Betsy Fahlman CHAPTER 7
The Cultural Heritage of the Moon | 137
CHAPTER 1 Beth Laura O’Leary
First Steps | 11
Index | 145
CHAPTER 2
Mercury Redstone/Atlas | 25
vii
Abandon in Place
Ray Bradbury
Three elegies written on visiting
the deserted rocket pads at Cape Canaveral
1 2
Abandon in Place. Where firebirds once
No Further Maintenance Authorized. Now daubers caulk the seams;
Abandon. Turn away your face. Where firewings flew
No more the mad high wanderings of thought To blueprint young men’s dreams,
You once surmised. Let be! Now warbler here and osprey weave their nests
Wipe out the stars. Put out the skies. From laces lost from off a spaceman’s tread.
What lived as center to our souls The great hearthplace stands cold,
Now dies—so what?—now dies. Its Phoenix dead.
What once as arrow to our thoughts No more from out the coals
Which target-ran in blood-fast flow Bright salamanders burn and gyre,
No longer flies. Only the bright beasts’ skins and restless bones bed here,
Cut off the stars. Slam shut the teeming skies. And lost the fire.
Abandon in Place. O, Phoenix, rub thy bones,
Burn out your eyes. No more suspire!
Flint souls, strike mind against wild mind.
Return! Be born of spent desire.
Bright burn. Bright burn!
O mighty God’s voice, shorn,
Give shout next Easter morn. Be born!
(Our prayer calls you to life.)
Reborn of fire!
viii
3
Abandon in Place. And let them burn?
So the sign says, so the words go. How soon will all of Earth mob round, come here
The show is spent, the fire-walkers gone, once more
And gone the glow at dawn. To stop the night,
This day? No rockets rise like thunder. Put doubt away for good with rocket light?
The wonder still remains O soon, O let that day be soon
In meadows where mound-dwellers not so long ago When midnight blossoms with grand ships
Envied the birds, the untouched stars, As bright and high as noon.
And let their touching envy grow. Prepare the meadows, birds, and mounds,
Machineries stir here with falls of rust; Old ghosts of rocketmen, arise.
The lust for space still echoes Fling up your ships, your souls, your flesh, your blood,
In the birds that circle lost in mourning cries Your blinding dreams
Repeating shouts of crowds long-spent To fill, refill, and fill again
Whose aching shook the skies. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’s
The sea moves down the shore Promised and re-promised
In wave on wave full-whispering, Skies.
No more. No more.
When will the harvesters return
To gather further wonders as a fuel
ix