Aerojet, a missile propulsion manufacturer based in California, designed and tested many of the early NASA and USA military rockets. (information courtesy Wikipedia and AbandonedFL).
This location is at N 25 21′ 43″ W 80 33′ 44″, in case you want to check it out on Google Maps or Google Earth.
In the 1960s, Aerojet solid fuel technology was under consideration for use in Saturn first stages. A monolithic, 21-foot-diameter (6.4 m) motor was designed, which was too big to be transported by rail. A facility was constructed in the Florida Everglades where the motors could be built and tested, and then barged to Cape Canaveral.
A canal was dug (C-111), the southernmost freshwater canal in Southeast Florida, and a drawbridge was installed for the U.S. Highway 1 crossing at mile marker 116. The canal was dubbed the "Aerojet Canal". SW 232nd Avenue was renamed "Aerojet Road".
They fired the rocket three times. The last test broke windows 10 miles away.
When the Aerojet product was not selected for the Saturn project, and segmented boosters were chosen for the Space Shuttle, the land and facilities were returned to the state, and are now managed by the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as a nature preserve. The Aerojet signage still remains for both the road and canal and most of the facility's buildings remain intact, although weather-damaged.
I flew this weekend over the derelict facility and shot the images you see here.
There is a 120ft deep silo in this building. It has been welded shut since its discovery post-abandonment. The AJ-260-2 rocket motor, the largest solid-fuel rocket ever built, remains in it to this day over 50 years after.
For more details and ground-level photos visit AbandonedFL and watch an interesting video by Space Miami.
No comments:
Post a Comment