NASA says 1969 moon landing lab to be demolished next year

Associated Press
Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019 3:10 p.m. | Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019 3:10 p.m.

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In this Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 photo, Judy Allton points out diagnostic monitoring equipment for the air filtration system in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The building has not been used for two years, and is slated for demolition.

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In this Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 photo, Sean Keprta, an occupational health officer, checks the ceiling of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The building has not been used for two years, and is slated for demolition.

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This Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 photo, shows an unused laboratory in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The building has not been used for two years and is scheduled for demolition.

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This Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 photo, many buttons and other missing items that have been taken as souvenirs according to employees, at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The building has not been used for two years, and is slated for demolition.

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In this Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 photo, (from left) Sergio Leal, an engineering contractor, Judy Allton, a curator of samples, and Osvaldo Salinas, an intern, peer into the room where Neil Armstrong was quarantined after he returned from the moon, while on a tour of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The building has not been used for two years, and it is slated for demolition.

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This Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 photo, shows the entrance to Building 37, also called the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where astronauts and lunar rocks were quarantined after they arrived. The building has not been used for two years, and is slated for demolition.

NASA says the Houston building where Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong and his colleagues emerged from quarantine after their 1969 moon mission has fallen into disrepair and will be demolished.

The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center hasn’t been used for two years and will likely be torn down next year.

The building, completed in 1967, was designed to isolate the astronauts and lunar rock samples until it was clear they weren’t carrying disease.

A 2015 economic analysis determined that the historic building has structural and electrical problems and can’t be saved. A replacement building will house artifacts saved from original lab.

NASA’s decision comes just months after celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the first lunar footsteps by Apollo 11 astronauts.