Abandon in Place: Cape Canaveral, August 2010

Page 7 - Flame Deflectors

And then I walked over to the flame deflectors.

They built two, perhaps thinking they might need a spare, but I really do not know why, although considering the punishment that the flame deflector had to take, sitting directly beneath the exhaust nozzles of something as monstrous as a lit Saturn 1B, it would appear to make perfect sense. Perhaps they are each a little different in some way, allowing for an adjustment to varying conditions somehow.

The Fondu Fyre on the southernmost deflector had obviously seen the conditions it was intended to withstand, while the other one showed no sign of enduring direct rocket exhaust at close range. That said, for all I know, it had been used and recoated. I can't know.

Somewhere along the line hereabouts, my mood lifted and I was once again able to fully appreciate things, of themselves and for themselves.

The flame deflectors are a phenomenal piece of architecture, comprising a marvelously self-contradictory grouping of disparate visual elements including beauty, sinisterness, stoicism, grace, brutality, serenity, symmetry, power, and a few I can't think of right now, and my camera fell madly in love with them. Ah well, it's all in the eye of the beholder anyway.

Flame Deflector, Launch Complex 34, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

It eventually became time to go, no matter how much I wished I could stay here at this powerfully wistful and evocative place.

A complete circuit of the pad was now over and done with.

My name had been getting distantly called from the direction of the car for too long, and I very reluctantly began heading that way, firing off some farewell shots as I did so.