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The building in which Apollo 11 crews were quarantined after their landmark landing five decades ago will be demolished in 2020 and replaced by an energy-efficient building, NASA said Tuesday.
The lunar reception lab at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, was purpose built in 1967 to welcome Neil Armstrong and his team back from the moon, until NASA could determine that They had not contracted any infectious disease. The crew was quarantined for three weeks, while NASA scientists began studying their first set of lunar rocks.
NASA EMAIL REVEAL SPACE AGENCY (A REVEAL SPACE AGENT) DID NOT KNOW ASTEROID'S CITY-KILLER & # 39; UP TO LAST MOMENT:
The building has become run down and is now irreparable, the Houston Chronicle reported on Tuesday.
Room at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Neil Armstrong was quarantined after returning from the moon.
(Jon Shapley / Houston Chronicle via AP)
Since the last flight of the Apollo program in 1972, the building has been used specifically for projects related to the health of astronauts. But a 2015 economic analysis determined that the structural and electrical problems of the historic building could not be solved.
Dallas-based HDR Architecture was awarded a $ 5.7 million contract to design the laboratory replacement.
"I hate to see what this building stands for and what we did here 50 years ago, disappear," said Judy Allton, curator at the Space Center.
The photo of this Monday, September 16, 2019 shows many buttons and other missing items that were taken as souvenirs, according to employees, the Lunar Receiving Laboratory Johnson Space Center in Houston.
(Jon Shapley / Houston Chronicle via AP)
Sandra Tetley, Johnson's historical preservation manager, said she intended to keep the original stairs, pillars and walkways, as well as the most equipment at the same time. interior of the building.
"But it's a shame to lose the building," Tetley said.
Everett Gibson, Johnson's emeritus scientist, worked in the lab during the Apollo missions, ages 12 to 17.
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Just months after the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the first lunar steps of the Apollo 11 astronauts, Gibson said it was difficult to see the building disappear, but that keeping it for historical purposes would be too expensive . He does not know either that the public interest persists.
"Sometimes in life we have to make difficult decisions and I do not know what you could do with it," he said. "It's rotting and the cost of maintaining it is just terrible – I do not think it's so exciting for a man and a woman on the street."
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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