A picture-perfect day greeted employees, guests, contractor partners and elected officials who attended the Hydro Impact Basin Groundbreaking Ceremony at NASA Langley’s Landing Impact and Research Facility, also known as the Gantry, Tuesday, June 8. The water basin will be 115 feet (35 m) long, 90 feet (27.4 m) wide and 20 feet (6.1 m) deep and will be built at the west end of the Gantry, where Neil Armstrong trained for walking on the moon. The new facility will serve to validate and certify that future space vehicles, such as NASA’s Orion crew module, are designed for safe water landings. Construction on the $1.7 million project will begin mid-June and will be completed by December 2010.
Speakers at the ceremony touted the usefulness of the Gantry and how it has been an important player in space exploration since the sixties. “From Mercury 7 to Orion, NASA Langley has been a leader in America’s space program,” said Congressman Bobby Scott, 3rd District of Virginia.
Participating in the groundbreaking were: Brantley Adams, Vice President and General Manager of Jacobs Inc, Rome Group; Larry Price, Deputy Manager of the Orion Project – Lockheed Martin, Denver; Mayor Molly Ward of Hampton, Va.; Congressman Bobby Scott – 3rd District of Virginia; Mark Kirasich, Orion Deputy Manager from NASA Johnson; and Steve Jurczyk, Deputy Director of NASA Langley.
Credit: NASA/Sean Smith