NASA Looking to Lease, Give Away Giant Launch Platforms
Monday, August 26, 2013
By: Amy Green

August 26, 2013 | WMFE - Could you use a mobile rocket launcher platform dating to the Apollo program? NASA wants to lease or give away three of the huge steel platforms which held rockets and shuttles before they blasted into space.

The mobile launcher platforms are two stories tall, 160 feet long and 135 feet wide. Each weighs 8 million pounds.

NASA doesn't need the platforms anymore, after the shuttle program ended in 2011. But the space agency can't afford to refurbish or dispose of them.

Steve Parker of Kennedy Space Center says ideally NASA will lease them to a commercial company that will carry on the space agency's missions to low Earth orbit.

"And we're also interested if somebody has some other off-the-wall uses. If somebody wants to preserve it for museum use or sink it and make a reef out of it, we're interested in that information."

The solicitation is part of NASA's goal to transform Kennedy Space Center into a multi-user space port.

The space agency also plans to lease out an old shuttle launch pad and is in talks about giving up oversight of the shuttle runway.