National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Area II of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory was the proving ground for numerous rocket engines and components designed and developed by Rocketdyne for NASA, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army's Army Ballistic Missile Agency. Area II was sub-divided into four test areas, Alfa, Bravo, Coca and Delta, with multiple test stands and multiple support facilities in each. The Historic American Engineering Record has been undertaking a project to record the extant structures of these test areas which reflect the most intense research and development era of rocket propulsion in our nation. Some of the major rocket engine programs that used Area II for testing include the Redstone, Atlas and Jupiter engines, the predecessor to the Saturn V's F-1 engine, the E-1, components of the F-1 engine, the upper stage engines for the Saturn V, the J-2 and the testing and development of the Space Shuttle Main Engine.

This video fly-through is of the extant structures at the Bravo location, captured with high-definition laser scans (not shown), and then modeled using various CAD software. Once modeling is completed, measured and interpretive drawings are produced as part of the documentation set.

he field documentation team consisted of HDP architects Tom Behrens, Annie Kidd, Dana Lockett, Alex Matsov, and John Wachtel. Modeling of the topography and test stands by Annie Kidd, Jeremy Mauro, and John Wachtel. The fly-through animation was rendered using 3ds Max by John Wachtel. The video editing was accomplished using Blender by John Wachtel.

This documentation project was coordinated through the Planning Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Special thanks to the Submerged Resources Center for allowing HDP to use their NPS Arrowhead introduction. We would also like to thank the band Electro-Smog for use of their song "Moon Love" under the Creative Commons License.