{"id":228700,"date":"2026-01-11T20:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/228700\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T20:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:29:07","slug":"watch-blasts-demolish-redstone-arsenal-test-stand-once-the-tallest-man-made-structure-in-north-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/228700\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch blasts demolish Redstone Arsenal test stand, once the tallest man-made structure in north Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the demolition heard around North Alabama.<\/a><\/p>\n

Two historic structures at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center on Redstone Arsenal were demolished Saturday. The test stands – the Dynamic Test Facility and the Propulsion and Structural Test Facility \u2013 were brought down by what the agency called \u201ccarefully coordinated\u201d<\/a> implosions. <\/p>\n

Crews had previously demolished the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, a facility built in the late 1960s that enabled astronauts and researchers to experience near-weightless conditions. The simulator, which had been closed since 1997, was once conduct underwater testing of space hardware and practice runs for the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n

The demolition is part of NASA\u2019s broader efforts to modernize Marshall\u2019s footprint, agency officials said. It was the first phase of a plan that will ultimately include the removal of 25 outdated structures.<\/p>\n

Boom! Saturday\u2019s demolition at Redstone<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s demolition took place around 10 a.m. and was heard across north Alabama.<\/p>\n

The Dynamic Test Stand was built in 1964 and used to test fully assembled Saturn V rockets and later to integrate all elements of the space shuttle. It was last used in the early 2000s, NASA said.<\/p>\n

The Propulsion and Structural Test Facility, known at Marshall as the \u201cT-tower\u201d was built in 1957 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency and transferred to Marshall in 1960. It was used to test components of the Saturn launch vehicle, the Army\u2019s Redstone Rocket and shuttle solid rocket boosters. <\/p>\n

It was last used for space shuttle solid rocket motor testing in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

According to Marshall officials, the 360-foot tower topped by a 64-foot derrick was once the tallest human-made structure in North Alabama.<\/p>\n

You can read more on the history of the structures here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the demolition heard around North Alabama. Two historic structures at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-228700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}