Demolition, preservation and cleanup: Behind the scenes at NASA's rocket test site

Deep in the Santa Susana Mountains in Southern California, two masses of steel beams stand hundreds of feet above deep concrete basins.

The structures are known as the Coca stands, former rocket test stands used by NASA to test everything from the Space Shuttle's main engine to equipment used during the Apollo moon missions.

Up close, the structures are so large it's impossible to see them in their entirety. It's not until one visits a lookout point that the full Coca stands are visible.

These days, visitors will see one of the stands being torn down. The demolition began in March and comprises phase six of NASA's eight-phase demolition plan for the test site.

NASA has jurisdiction over about 451 acres within Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a 2,850-acre aeronautic test site south of Simi Valley. The field lab is split into four administrative areas. Area II is overseen by NASA, while Areas I, III and IV are owned by Boeing.

In 1959, the former Boeing-Rocketdyne nuclear testing facility within Area IV had a partial nuclear meltdown, causing radiation and other contaminants to spill into the surrounding landscape. The fallout from the meltdown, as well as other hazardous materials used across the site, has led to its designation as a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

NASA tested rockets at the Santa Susana field lab until March 2006, but moved all rocket test operations in recent years to the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. With the obsolescence of the test stands, NASA returned the property back to the federal government in 2009. The government accepted the return of the NASA property with the condition the site be cleaned up.

The cleanup operation is currently managed by NASA's Peter Zorba, the site's project director since 2017 who has been working at Santa Susana field lab for more than 12 years. During his tenure, Zorba has overseen completion of the investigative phase of the cleanup and moved onto what he deems the first step of environmental remediation: demolishing nearly all manmade structures.

"We want to do the right thing here," Zorba said. "We want to clean up that footprint from the operations."

While cleanup is far from finished, progress made in recent years has already made a tangible difference to the landscape today.

Demolition of NASA's Coca stands

The Coca stands were one of four series of rocket test stands in Area II: Alfa, Bravo, Coca and Delta. Over 17,000 rockets were tested at the field lab, including rocket engines for NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.

The Delta stands were demolished in 1973 when NASA formally acquired the property, while the Bravo stands were demolished in 2022.

After years of deliberation, NASA decided to preserve the Alfa stands for a variety of reasons. The stands were the site of both the first and last rocket tests by NASA at the Santa Susana field lab. The Alfa stands also remain in relatively good condition and would cost the least to be maintained as a historic site.

"It lends itself to being able to demonstrate or illustrate the operations that went on out here," Zorba said.

The Alfa stands are much smaller than the Coca stands, though they measure more than 90 feet from top to bottom. The site also includes an underground bunker house where NASA's rocket scientists observed the tests and a control panel next to the test stands to modulate fuel mixtures for rockets.

The decision to demolish the Coca stands has faced criticism from local nonprofits like Save Open Space, an Agoura Hills-based activist group that advocates for the preservation of the stands due to their historical significance.

Despite the backlash, Zorba said NASA is legally bound by prior agreement to demolish the Coca stands. The first Coca stand is expected to be demolished by the end of this year. The second stand will be torn down by the end of 2024.

As a compromise, several elements taken from the Coca stands have been removed for preservation. Additionally, 3D scans of the Coca stands have been uploaded to the internet to allow anyone to take a "virtual tour" of the structures.

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Environmental cleanup of the stie

Despite the partial nuclear meltdown, a 2012 EPA study found no significant radioactivity within NASA's Area II.

"NASA had no radioactive operations or materials, so we have no rad inherently in our areas to begin with," Zorba said, referring to a unit of an absorbed dose of radiation.

However, the site is not without contaminants from rocket tests. The highest quantity to be removed is trichloroethylene, or TCE, a volatile solvent and groundwater contaminant.

"Before and after each test, the rocket engines and rocket components were basically cleaned with TCE, so TCE is our contaminant that is driving the main cleanup for NASA at Santa Susana," Zorba said.

NASA has been pioneering technology to remove TCE and other toxic chemicals like dioxins from the groundwater and bedrock.

With the current systems, Zorba said an average of 7 pounds of TCE were being removed from the bedrock every day. While the progress is notable, the agency has a long way to go before reaching levels deemed safe by the federal government.

In 2020, NASA officials said they would not be able to reach the level of chemicals agreed upon with state regulators in 2010. The move was widely condemned by local officials and remains the subject of ongoing negotiation between NASA and state officials.

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Future of the Santa Susana Mountains site

The environmental cleanup process is likely to take years, if not decades, according to Zorba. However, once the volatile organic compounds are back to safe levels and traces of human development removed, the area could reopen as open space.

Ecologically, he said, the Santa Susana Mountains serve as a wildlife corridor between the Santa Monica Mountains to the south and Los Padres National Forest to the north. Black bears, bobcats, rattlesnakes, golden eagles and peregrine falcons are among wildlife found in the field lab's natural habitat.

"This place is thriving," Zorba said.

When that future arrives, visitors will be able to enjoy the natural sandstone landscape — and maybe during their visit, they'll spot the Alfa stands as a final vestige of what once happened there.

Jeremy Childs is the East County Reporter for the Ventura County Star, covering the communities of Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Simi Valley. He occasionally covers courts, public safety and breaking news. He can be reached at 805-437-0208, jeremy.childs@vcstar.com, and on Twitter @Jeremy_Childs.