Contributed photo A fixed umbilical tower provides key utilities such as power and air conditioning to keep the rocket and its payload healthy before liftoff. The mobile assembly shelter stands out as a shuttle-unique structure and is recognizable by the humongous American flag on the sides. The shuttle-era structures have remained in the decades after the program’s cancellation and during SLC-6’s most recent user, the United Launch Alliance Delta IV family of rockets. SpaceX, like several other rocket manufacturers, employs an austere launch site approach, avoiding some of the headaches of keeping the metal structures free of corrosive rust and other maintenance challenges associated with being yards from the ocean. “Mechanical shears would be used to cut the building sections into manageable sizes. Cranes would be utilized in order to assist with any heavy lifts of the structure,” the draft report said. “Explosives would be used to remove the Mobile Service Tower during which four approximately 50-pound explosive charges would be detonated simultaneously. This would cause … a short impulsive sound, similar to those experienced during first stage landing events at SLC-4, but over a much smaller area,” the report said. Sign Up for the A.M. Report Keep up with Noozhawk's daily news coverage, delivered at 4:15 a.m. right to your inbox. Sign up This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Similar demolition occurred at SLC-4 East, formerly used for Titan IV rocket launches and now Falcon 9, plus SLC-4 West, once home to the Titan 2 program liftoffs and now the Falcon 9 landing site. An excavator would be used to move the manageable pieces of the demolished structures to a dump truck to remove the remnants off the site. To ready SLC-6 for Falcon rockets, SpaceX plans to construct various storage tanks including for rocket propellant known as RP-1 and liquid oxygen. The project also would include installing a vehicle erector to raise the rocket into horizontal to vertical position and adding a 200-foot-tall water tower on the east side of the complex. A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex-4 on a foggy Sunday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base to deliver Starlink satellites into orbit. Credit: