Moffett Users

Updates:

* Added slideshows.

I’m here at Building 943, just outside Moffett Field main gate, for the RAB meeting. I’ll add notes to this entry as the meeting progresses.

The agenda and the draft minutes from the last meeting are available. The next RAB meeting is scheduled for May 15, the third Thursday in May, rather than the usual second Thursday. Further meetings in 2008:

* July 10
* September 11
* November 13

6:55 p.m.: Only a few people have arrived so far. Linda Ellis tells me that she is making progress in getting permission for her team to go inside Hangar One to do their own structural analysis.

7:10 p:m: The Navy’s Darren Newton introduces Community Co-Chair Bob Moss to start the meeting.

Bob notes this is one of the smaller crowds in the past few years. RAB Member Lenny Siegel sent Bob an email to say he hopes to arrive from San Diego before too late.

Bob calls for introductions around the room. Representatives from Mountain View and Sunnyvale city government are here. Reporter Daniel Debolt is here.

Bob reviews the agenda.

Bob reads a formal thank-you from the Navy to Tania Fragomeno of Katz & Associates, who for years has supported the BRAC process at Moffett. She compiles the minutes and distributes all of the hand-outs to the RAB members and the public before each meeting.

The minutes are approved without correction.

7:18: Next, Darren announces the community co-chair election to be held at the May meeting.

Read the rest of this entry »

(I’ve posted the draft minutes of the January 10 RAB meeting and the final minutes of the November 8 RAB meeting.)

The Moffett Restoration Advisory Board will meet Thursday, March 13, 7:00-9:30 p.m., in Building 943, just outside the Moffett main gate.

Agenda items:

• Welcome, Approve Minutes, Announcement/Review of Action Items (40 minutes)
• Regulatory Update (15 minutes)
• Hangar One Progress Review by Scott Gromko of the Navy (45 minutes)
• Petroleum Program Update by Wilson Doctor of the Navy (20 minutes)
• Site 22 Five-Year Review by Wilson Doctor (20 minutes)
• Topics for Future Meetings (10 minutes)

The next RAB meeting will be May 15, 2008. That’s the third Thursday of May, a departure from the usual second Thursday.

The full agenda (651KB PDF) is available.

The founders of Google made news last year by making Moffett Field the home of several of their aircraft.

NASA then told us that they’ll be seeking more private users of Moffett’s runways.

Today comes news of two new civilian, non-government tenants.

Airship Ventures has announced that they’ll be moving to office space at Moffett. The company wants to base airships in Hangar Two.

And Zero Gravity Corporation has announced an agreement with NASA to fly their 727-200 from Moffett to let paying passengers experience brief periods of weightlessness.

I’m all for more civilian use of the runways at Moffett. I think NASA would argue that it’s legal to allow these new tenants only because their flights are relevant to the Space Act, but I don’t find that credible. Airship Ventures is doing sightseeing, and Zero Gravity is doing recreational flights. Both are wonderful ways for Moffett to benefit the community, but neither is more relevant to the Space Act than any other aviation operation.

It’s time for NASA to drop the pretense and welcome more aviation users into Moffett. NASA should invite bids from private companies who will take over operation of the runways, build or adapt the appropriate facilities, and relieve NASA of the burden of making the runways pay for themselves.

Architect magazine has a story on the effort to save Hangar One. I spoke to a writer for the magazine a few weeks ago, and the article does a good job of describing the community effort for preservation.

As reported in the San Jose Mercury News, the Moffett Navy Exchange has closed, as expected. I know many active and retired military in the area relied on the Exchange for both military and non-military goods.

The Navy Exchange on-line store is available, of course, but I’m sure it can’t always replace the local store.

As the Voice reported a week ago, a possible chemical treatment has been suggested to decontaminate Hangar One. It was mentioned at the last RAB meeting, too.

On Sunday, RAB Community Co-Chair Bob Moss pinged the Navy’s Darren Newton by email, asking whether there was any progress. Today, Bob tells me he hasn’t heard any response yet.

Here is Bob’s email:

To: Darren Newton, Navy BRAC PMO West

Darren;

Any progress in the discussions with AMSTAR? I think that while it may sound as if they have an interesting and perhaps useful approach the only way to be sure is careful testing and evaluation of their process on real siding sections. Are they willing and able to do such a test, and would it be done under conditions acceptable to the Navy and NASA as well as the general community?

Regards, Bob

Local resident and former NASA intern John Lindon proposes that Hangar One should house a world-class science fiction museum.

If you have feedback for John, let me know, and I’ll pass it on.

Bloomberg: Save California’s PCB-Leaking Dirigible Hangar, Vets Urge Navy.

An article in the Mountain View Voice describes a chemical treatment that might be able to neutralize the toxics in Hangar One, even in the siding, where the toxics are embedded deep in the multi-layer panels. It sounds far fetched, but the Navy and some Restoration Advisory Board members are following up.

I’m mentioned in an article by Melanie Carroll in the Palo Alto Daily News that describes the Navy’s plan to do a structural analysis of Hangar One before making a recommendation to demolish the hangar or retain it in some form.

The article describes the comments of Georganna Hymes, a wonderful lady who has attended several RAB meetings recently. She makes long, somtimes rambling comments that depart from the somewhat scripted interchange between the Navy and us longtime RAB attendees. Whether because she lacks the context of years following the Navy’s bureaucratic processes, or out of simple passion for the hangar, Ms. Hymes says things that the rest of us might not think of. Yes, on Thursday we heard a little about some of Ms. Hymes’s physical ailments—at 83, she is Hangar One’s older sister, after all—but her call for three contractors to analyze the hangar’s structure, not just one, emphasized questions from other community members: Who is Exeltech? How were they chosen? What is their experience?

I’m glad Georganna makes the effort to attend. She is a civics lesson with a cane.

Update: The Mountain View Voice also published an article on the RAB meeting.