NASA to Demolish Three Historic Test Facilities at Marshall Center

NASA is preparing to demolish three iconic structures at its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Crews began demolition in mid-December on the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, a late-1960s facility that enabled near-weightless training and underwater testing for missions including Skylab and Hubble repairs.

The other two structures—the Propulsion and Structural Test Facility, known as the "T-tower," and the Dynamic Test Stand—are slated for demolition by carefully coordinated implosion, one after the other, no earlier than sunrise on Jan. 10, 2026. The T-tower was built in 1957 by the U.S.

Army Ballistic Missile Agency and later used to test Saturn vehicles, the Redstone rocket, and shuttle solid rocket boosters; it was last used for shuttle motor tests in the 1990s. The Dynamic Test Stand, built in 1964, supported full-scale Saturn V testing, was the first site to integrate all shuttle elements in 1978, and was last used in the early 2000s for microgravity testing.

Marshall officials say the demolitions are part of a larger project begun in spring 2022 to remove inactive structures no longer needed for the agency’s missions, modernize the campus, reduce maintenance burdens, and position the center to use a guaranteed NASA center infrastructure investment authorized under the Working Families Tax Credit Act.

Key Topics

Science, Marshall Center, Huntsville Alabama, Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, T Tower, Dynamic Test Stand