Fire Burns 100 Acres Near Shuttle Launch Pad
A brush fire of unknown origin charred about 100 acres near a launch pad where the space shuttle was once supposed to take off.
Monday’s fire, located on the remote southern shoreline of the base, burned grass just north of an area that was charred in late June.
The June blaze burned 7,782 acres on the Sudden Ranch property, close to the Point Arguello Coast Guard Lifeboat Rescue Station.
A base spokesman had no information on how close the flames came to the Space Launch Complex 6, also known as “Slick Six,” which is undergoing an estimated $120-million renovation.
The pad, a fixture on the base since the 1960s, was first developed for the proposed Manned Orbiting Laboratory, which never got off the ground. It later was modified to be the home of the West Coast space shuttle program, but that venture was canceled after the Challenger explosion in 1986.
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