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UER Forum > US: Pacific Southwest > SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown. (Viewed 13669 times)
cdracingzx6r 


Location: Orange County, California
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 93 likes




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SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< on 6/25/2014 4:48 AM >
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All good things come to an end unfortunately. After visiting this special location close to a dozen times, including three weekend camping trips, it's now weeks, maybe even days away from being reduced to rubble. Despite going so many times, I’ll always have a million regrets about what sections I should have explored more, etc.

That being said, I had an amazing time exploring/camping at this location with the handful of people I’ve met through this website over the years. After all these trips, I consider this tiny group of explorers to be among my best of friends, even outside of the confines of urban exploring.

I encourage and hope that they decide to post photos of this spot from there perspectives as well.


Location history, per wikipedia:



"SSFL was slated as a United States government facility dedicated to the development and testing of nuclear reactors, powerful rockets such as the Delta II, and the systems that powered the Apollo missions. The location of SSFL was chosen in 1947 for its remoteness in order to conduct work that was considered too dangerous and too noisy to be performed in more densely populated areas.



Rocket Engine Development at SSFL




North American Aviation (NAA) began its development of liquid propellant rocket engines after the end of WWII. The Rocketdyne division of NAA, which came into being under its own name in the mid-1950s designed and tested several rocket engines at the SSFL facility. They included engines for the Army's Redstone (an advanced short-range version of the German V-2), and the Army Jupiter intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) as well as the Air Force's counterpart IRBM, the Thor.

Also included were engines for the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), as well as the twin combustion chamber alcohol/liquid oxygen booster engine for the NAVAHO, a large, intercontinental cruise missile that never became operational.

Later, Rocketdyne designed and tested the huge F-1 engine that was eventually used as one of a cluster of engines powering the Apollo booster, as well as the J-2 liquid oxygen/hydrogen upper stage engine also used on the Project Apollo spacecraft.


Nuclear and Energy Research:


The Atomics International Division of North American Aviation utilized SSFL Area IV, as the site of United States first commercial nuclear power plant and the testing and development of the SNAP-10A, the first nuclear reactor launched into outer space by the United States

SSFL Controversies



Throughout the years, approximately ten low-power nuclear reactors operated at SSFL, in addition to several "critical facilities": a sodium burn pit in which sodium-coated objects were burned in an open pit; a plutonium fuel fabrication facility; a uranium carbide fuel fabrication facility; and the purportedly largest "Hot Lab" facility in the United States at the time. (A Hot Lab is a facility used for remotely cutting up irradiated nuclear fuel.) Irradiated nuclear fuel from other Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Department of Energy (DOE) facilities from around the country were shipped to SSFL to be decladded and examined.

The Hot Lab suffered a number of fires involving radioactive materials. For example, in 1957, a fire in the Hot Cell "got out of control and ... massive contamination" resulted. In July, 1959, the site suffered a partial nuclear meltdown that has been named "the worst in U.S. history", releasing an undisclosed amount of radiation, but thought to be much more than the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979. Another radioactive fire occurred in 1971, involving combustible primary reactor coolant (NaK) contaminated with mixed fission products.






http://500px.com/Scott-G-Photography
http://www.flickr....otos/rdmsguy/sets/
cdracingzx6r 


Location: Orange County, California
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 93 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 1 on 6/25/2014 4:48 AM >
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[last edit 6/25/2014 5:41 AM by cdracingzx6r - edited 1 times]

http://500px.com/Scott-G-Photography
http://www.flickr....otos/rdmsguy/sets/
spacetimecurvature 


Location: San Francisco
Gender: Female
Total Likes: 91 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 2 on 6/25/2014 4:57 AM >
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Thank you for the write up cdracingzx6r! Yes, I'm glad I got to see this when I did.





Flashyfashionfraud 


Location: Los Angeles, CA
Gender: Neither
Total Likes: 187 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 3 on 6/25/2014 5:04 AM >
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At least you explored it while you can, y'all took beautiful photos and it's a shame this place is being torn down. It's quite the gem. Thank you for sharing.




“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!" — Dr. Strangelove
seedy 


Location: Triad, North Carolina
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 75 likes


Won't eat you.

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 4 on 6/25/2014 5:06 AM >
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First of all, i'd like to thank cdracingzx6r for reaching out to me about this site. I believe his words in one way or another were "the gnarliest explore you'll ever do."....I spent probably thousands of dollars on flights, car rentals and hotel rooms on this over 6 or 7 visits to this place. Serious security here. Off the charts history, obviously. Incredibly fun, incredibly painful....These are just some jpegs I had been sharing with friends. As usual, I'm notoriously bad at spending time processing my photos. This place is beautiful and intricate and the photos do no justice to actually being there.


alphas_walkway_lights by yeahcooksie, on Flickr

cooling-tower-pump by yeahcooksie, on Flickr

Daylight04 by yeahcooksie, on Flickr

control_room by yeahcooksie, on Flickr

Cocoa1_from_cocoa2_again by yeahcooksie, on Flickr

headphones01 by yeahcooksie, on Flickr

phone_and_controls02 by yeahcooksie, on Flickr

gauges by yeahcooksie, on Flickr

Cocoa_stand01 by yeahcooksie, on Flickr



[last edit 6/25/2014 5:17 AM by seedy - edited 1 times]

Architecture, nature, alcohol....
Space travel, Rock n Roll.
Dare2Hide 


Location: South Carolina
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 43 likes


Lets go exploring

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 5 on 6/25/2014 6:00 AM >
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Looks like a pretty epic location and you got some epic shots from it. Good job




Austtie 


Location: Ventura County
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 127 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 6 on 6/25/2014 6:26 AM >
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This is quite possibly the greatest thing I've seen on UER. Just fantastic.

cdracingzx6r: Love the high resolution! Those are some beautiful, museum quality, pictures. It looks like you had a close call with the security truck in picture #2 Thanks for taking the time to provide us with the history as well. You clearly put a lot of time and effort into this project.

spacetimecurvature: Brilliant picture as usual, with an awesome skyline.

Seedy: Excellent shots! Thanks for giving us an extensive look around the stands. That last picture is perfect.




https://www.flickr...otos/97773368@N06/
droopyeye 


Location: Monterey, CA
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 65 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 7 on 6/25/2014 7:16 AM >
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All I can say in awe is FUCK...




Just celebrated the birth of my third girl, an exploration all in its self.
freeside 


Location: Northern California
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 270 likes


eh vigo!

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 8 on 6/25/2014 7:58 AM >
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Over the last 3 years or so we had a chance to visit this site multiple times. An epic place with epic adventures. It was never easy. Driving all day, 10 mile round-trip hikes in a single night, staying up all night and then driving back the next day caused me to back out multiple times.
Screaming arguments with my closest friends, windblown cameras and even a lens ripped in half were experienced along the way. All things considered, of course, it was worth it and the siren song of SSFL kept me going back. At least 2 different trips we swore the place off and said we'd never go back, but we went back again. It's so big, and so difficult to shoot, navigate and survive that the pictures didn't always turn out how you wanted them to, and you just had to go back and get that shot right.

Alfa test stands:






Coca test stands:

Check out the bottom right of the above photo. You can see tunnelbug's legs. He was so exhausted he crashed out and took a nap on the steel catwalk.


Joint light painting with me and Scott Haefner.







Check out the Wired Magazine article about our trips to this amazing place and other defunct cold war locations:
http://www.wired.c...re-they-disappear/


Videos related:
Helicopter view of alfa during test firing:
https://www.youtub...atch?v=nu0vmibHvYM

Here's the Historic American Engineering Record fly through animation based on laser scanning done at Coca.
https://www.youtub...atch?v=-tSE2eCBtAY

Fly through of test stand one:
https://www.youtub...atch?v=ji2JxVl6npM


Here's some camping shots:

Someone is still asleep under the pipe.


Also sleeping. Guess I was the first one up that afternoon...


More stories to come...
-free






[last edit 6/25/2014 8:08 AM by freeside - edited 3 times]

Dare2Hide 


Location: South Carolina
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 43 likes


Lets go exploring

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 9 on 6/25/2014 11:44 AM >
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OMG! And this is what its all about! Creating memories and sharing stories! Bravo you guys!




decrepitude 


Location: Norcal
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 145 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 10 on 6/25/2014 7:53 PM >
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Very nice, even better shots than I expected. Kudos you guys, this location is alpha as fuck.










Yuichi Kanai 


Location: Oakland, CA
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 81 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 11 on 6/25/2014 8:02 PM >
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Tadow! Best thing I've seen this week^h^h^h^h month^h^h^h^h^h year.




RescueMe1060 


Location: San Francisco
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 1644 likes


Radioactivity, its in the air for you & me

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 12 on 6/25/2014 10:24 PM >
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No geiger counter needed?




http://www.flickr....rescueme1060/sets/
seedy 


Location: Triad, North Carolina
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 75 likes


Won't eat you.

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 13 on 6/25/2014 11:00 PM >
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Posted by RescueMe1060
No geiger counter needed?


Why ruin the fun? LOL!





Architecture, nature, alcohol....
Space travel, Rock n Roll.
relik 


Location: 44.26126°,-88.41502° (Appleton, WI)
Gender: Male
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There is no truth, Only a perspective.

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 14 on 6/25/2014 11:56 PM >
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Damn.




"When it rains, just find bigger drains."
MeoW 


Gender: Male
Total Likes: 223 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 15 on 6/26/2014 12:24 AM >
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Amazing photos everyone! Wish I could've tagged along with you guys, that place looks like playground.




I don't do magic Morty I do science!
Alice 


Location: Nor Cal
Gender: Female
Total Likes: 41 likes


"Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 16 on 6/26/2014 12:27 AM >
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Amazing shots guys! Very impressive!




"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
cdracingzx6r 


Location: Orange County, California
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 93 likes




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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 17 on 6/26/2014 2:38 AM >
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Posted by spacetimecurvature
Thank you for the write up cdracingzx6r! Yes, I'm glad I got to see this when I did.

https://farm4.stat...6_cef6fc4525_b.jpg


This is a great shot! But I hope your going to post more...


Posted by Austtie
This is quite possibly the greatest thing I've seen on UER. Just fantastic.

cdracingzx6r: Love the high resolution! Those are some beautiful, museum quality, pictures. It looks like you had a close call with the security truck in picture #2 Thanks for taking the time to provide us with the history as well. You clearly put a lot of time and effort into this project.




Thanks man! I wish our schedules were not so conflicted the last few months, would have enjoyed taking you there.




Posted by freeside

Check out the Wired Magazine article about our trips to this amazing place and other defunct cold war locations:
http://www.wired.c...re-they-disappear/




We played a little phone tag a few months ago, and I never got a chance to say congratulations on getting the wired magazine article published.

I've made it no secret that it was you and Hoverfly older publishings that were the main reason I was inspired to get into UE in the first place. Camping out with you guys over the weekend there was definitely a highlight for me. Hope to do it again sometime.









http://500px.com/Scott-G-Photography
http://www.flickr....otos/rdmsguy/sets/
TRUE 


Location: Nor-Cal
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 234 likes


"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be..."

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 18 on 6/26/2014 5:51 AM >
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My top four. From one visit. The trip was plagued with technical and creative problems for me. Photographically speaking. Not really happy with the shots I got, but I can always steel some pics from Freeside. I would have loved to gone back. It just wasn't in the stars.
Big thanks to B, Seedy, D, and cdr for sharing such a memorable experience.



















[last edit 6/26/2014 6:06 AM by TRUE - edited 1 times]

The Rebel Urban Explorer
seedy 


Location: Triad, North Carolina
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 75 likes


Won't eat you.

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Re: SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown.
< Reply # 19 on 6/26/2014 6:06 AM >
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Seedy: Excellent shots! Thanks for giving us an extensive look around the stands. That last picture is perfect.


Thank you. If you look closely in that shot, theres a pipe running through the middle of the rocks on the left, taking a sharp right angle up to some water tanks. That was our access point. I'm guessing it was easily 1/2-3/4 of a mile walking on a 24 inch pipe after hiking in 5 or 6 miles through "Joshua tree conditions." cdracingzx6r and I had been discussing recently how we never really bothered to spend the time documenting the journey in to this place. But it was HARD.....it really hurt. and then, you finally get there with no energy left and have to start shooting before the sun rises.....with security buzzing around. And of course, at 4 or 5 in the morning, you want to sleep, but you can only REALLY sleep for a couple of hours. By the time I Left, I was pretty disorientated.





Architecture, nature, alcohol....
Space travel, Rock n Roll.
UER Forum > US: Pacific Southwest > SSFL: Home of NASA rocket testing and the United States worst nuclear meltdown. (Viewed 13669 times)
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