A six-story maintenance work stand used by Boeing workers in Palmdale , Calif. for building and repairing the Space Shuttle was demolished July 14 as efforts continue to dispose of surplus equipment and facilities

The maintenance stand, called the Space Shuttle Orbiter Aft "513" work stand, was moved from its long-time residency within bay two of the orbiter hangar in Building 150 to an outside area for destruction. The number 513 refers to the part number.

"The demolition of such a large, nearly iconic, piece of Orbiter build and modifications history sends the message that we are moving towards retiring the Space Shuttle and related facilities and equipment," said Al Hoffman, Boeing director of proprietary operations for Palmdale/Edwards Air Force Base. "It’s a bit sad to many of us here to see this work stand go to scrap, but everyone remains focused on flying our final mission safer than those preceding."

Although the stand had wheels on it so it could be moved in and wrap around the back end of the shuttle orbiter, it was so large that it could not be economically transported to Kennedy Space Center .

Through its heritage element, Rockwell International, the Boeing Company developed and built five space shuttle orbiters: Atlantis, Challenger, Discovery and Endeavour. Palmdale performed the initial assembly and checkout of the orbiters as well as the Enterprise approach and landing test vehicle.

Palmdale was the center of shuttle activities where Orbiter Maintenance Modifications (OMM) and post-flight inspections, repairs and modifications called Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP) were accomplished from 1985 to 2001. Palmdale employed as many as 1,800 people in the 1980’s when building the orbiters. After building the orbiters, the work force drew down to approximately 650 supporting OMM and OMPD. Today, Boeing has a workforce of about 80 people. Most of the work was transferred to Kennedy Space Center when United Space Alliance was formed, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Bob Kahl, Boeing director of Orbiter Operations Support at Palmdale, helped build the 513 stand and spent his entire career at Palmdale since March 1975. He spent a good amount of time on the maintenance stand and remembers, "there were periods when we worked seven days a week for a couple of years straight and we had only one day off and that was Christmas."


The Boeing Palmdale work force continues to support the space shuttle program by building and repairing cold plates, which are finned devices used to cool electronic components on the space shuttle. They provide logistics support for parts, quick turnaround repairs and manufacture thermal protection tiles for test. They also support the External Tank quick disconnect valves on the orbiter when needed, which they used to manufacture locally.
Approximately 1.4 million pounds of original manufacturing and assembly tooling stored at Palmdale has been destroyed. Palmdale collected the original industrial build tooling equipment used in Boeing’s Downey, Calif. location as well as other support contractors. NASA maintains a federal excess property database that catalogs the space shuttle assets. Those assets are available to everyone in NASA as well as other government agencies and museums.

"NASA was mandated to keep this equipment in storage in the event that we ever had to build another space shuttle orbiter. When the new space exploration policy announcing the retirement of the space shuttles in 2010 came out, we worked with NASA to put together a plan to get these assets disposed of," said Hoffman. "Unless you were building another orbiter, most of this equipment would have no use."

"We’ve disposed of a lot of equipment so far, we still have the interior of the building 150 hangar to do that includes the center work stands and equipment attached to the building. We are about 75 percent complete in disposing of the major structure build-up tooling," said Kahl.
One item that has found a new home with the city of Palmdale was the Shuttle Escape System Test Vehicle capsule. The capsule was a simulator with two hatches on top that were blown off as part of a heavy-duty aircraft ejection system for the commander and pilot. The test vehicle rode down a rocket sled. Space Shuttle Columbia included this ejection system for the first few missions, but was later removed.

In addition, six temporary support buildings were torn down and another two warehouses are slated for demolition next year. Two facilities torn down this month included building 162, which once housed the engineering offices, and Building 122, which contained the Orbiter Lift Facility operations and was once the avionics testing control center supporting the B-1B bomber program.

"The facilities were not in the greatest shape because of their use for 30 plus years. As we downsized, we moved our people from the outlying buildings into the main hangar, building 150," said Hoffman. "By eliminating these temporary buildings, we are on our way to restoring the site so it can be reconfigured when the Air Force takes it back."

The Orbiter Lifting Fixture, which was used to lift the space shuttle orbiter onto the Boeing 747 for a flight back to Kennedy Space Center, will be also disposed of in the future. Boeing is working with NASA to find a future home for this large piece of equipment.

A NASA historical artifacts team, and their contractor Archealogical Consultants, have surveyed the Palmdale facilities and equipment. Building 150 where the space shuttles were assembled and repaired and the Orbiter Lifting Fixture are being considered for listing in the National or State Register of Historic Places.

"I’m here until they tell me they don’t need me anymore." Kahl said. "Very few people have a passion for the shuttle like us space cadets do. It is still rewarding to be part of it and I still look forward to supporting launch operations. We all want to ride it out to the very end."
The Boeing facilities are located on an area called site one on the U.S. Air Force Plant 42, which is adjacent to Edwards Air Force Base.