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A Space Junkyard
Today's Los Angeles Times has an article about a North Hollywood junkyard that stocks a huge quantity of used aerospace parts, from valves to rocket engines. Norton Sales Inc. got started in the early 1960s. The junkyard had fallen on hard times, with the collapse of the Los Angeles-area aerospace economy in the 1980s, but it's making something of a comeback now with NASA's new plans for moon and Mars missions. The customers used to be rich Hollywood types; nowadays they are as likely to be private space entrepreneurs. "It's dangerous coming to a place like this," said Dave Masten of Masten Space. "It's like shopping on an empty stomach."
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Watto: How are you going to pay for all this?
Qui-Gon Jinn: I have twenty thousand Republic dataries.
Watto: Republic credits? Republic credits are no good out here. I need something more real.
Qui-Gon Jinn: I don't have anything else
[waves hand]
Qui-Gon Jinn: but credits will do fine.
Watto: No, they won't-a.
[Qui-Gon waves his hand more firmly]
Qui-Gon Jinn: Credits will do fine.
Watto: No, they won't-a. What? You think you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hand around like that? I'm a Toydarian, mind tricks don't work on me. Only money. No money, no parts, no deal!
But, you're weak and want to be part of the crowd.
This place looks quite fun to visit. I'll have to check it out the next time I'm in the area.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
The junkyard had fallen on hard times, with the collapse of the Los Angeles-area aerospace economy in the 1980s, but it's making something of a comeback now with NASA's new plans for moon and Mars missions. Can't wait to take my first shuttle flight to Mars in that case.
Or is it just another Jettisoned Scrap and Salvage company? :)
The seems almost like a story for the register, after all even they would love to see a vulture on the moon...
Is this the place where all of the Farmer's go to buy their parts?
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
The guy buys the crap for a penny on the dollar and then asks for insane prices. The rocket engines are only worth scrap or as a museum piece as they have not been stored correctly to ensure they have not deteriorated or corroded.
fallen on hard times means he has to start charging sane prices instead of his government prices.
The apollo 1 command module engine he is trying to scam $1.5 mill out of is only worth 15 grand in scrap metal and is actually only worth that as it is not safe to use in it's current condition let alone relied upon for the safety of a crew or 22 million dollar sattelite.
Junkyard owners always think their turds are gold plated rare. in fact there is a good reason why he was able to buy that crap for the few dollars here and there. It's not worth anything.
Before shopping for aerospace parts, I like to drink some hydrazine and put a nosecone up my ass. Prevents me from splurging.
If Dave Masten of Masten Space is buying his parts at a junk yard, perhaps I'll avoid flying on his spacecraft...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Norton has always been popular with the film industry. I think back in it's heyday a good share of the profits came from selling to film companies. Unfortunately they got a double hit because as the Aerospace industry cranked down the film industry got nailed with runaway production so most of that went out of country. C&H was another good surplus company. There used to be half a dozen good ones in the LA area but I know several have gone under. I haven't lived in LA for five years so I don't know who is still in business. People underestimate the film industry. I know of several dental houses and medical supply places that sold more product to the film industry than their regular doctors and dentists. I remember one company stopped selling to us becuase we were cleaning them out all the time and they weren't able to supply the hospitals.
I imagine this is just one of those quirky things that has managed to escape the notice of the hyper paranoid Homeland Security people. One would think though that since many of the parts NASA used that wound up in this junkyard are considered 'military grade' that this place would have wound up on some kind of list. Oh well. Someone pick me up a friggin' space laser while they're over there, please.
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
Now we're going to have a bunch of astronaut farmers building rockets in their barns, now that they know where to get parts .. thanks Hollywood.
footage? (The subject length limit seemed appropriate!)
If the junkyard has junk from NASA facilities, wouldn't it be possible that the missing high-quality Apollo recordings could be there, stored in some seemingly insignificant crates? Judging from the images, stuff does not seem to be stored very orderly, nor do I get the impression that any inventory lists would be very precise. Probably far-fetched, but perhaps it could be worth a look.
-Lasse
Well, it'd probably take at least 40 Million and maybe twenty, thirzzzzZZZZZZzz
--- Do you believe in the day?
Here in Silicon Valley, surplus is not what it used to be. The military stuff is gone. No more satellite parts. No beautiful little electromechanical units. It's mostly failed computer brands. Lots of older Sun and SGI gear. Older rackmount networking gear too bulky to use any more. Endless piles of old PC motherboards. Unsuccessful consumer products.
Several of the surplus stores have gone out of business. Anything good goes on eBay now. What remains is scrap.
Heh.
I've been playing around with the idea of fitting a light rocket engine to my mountainbike. Not enough to reach takeoff velocity, but a steady 30 kph would be nice.
Anyone have any experience in this?
B.
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
I wonder if they have any JATO rockets?
Is there some place where Subject is mislabeled "Beginning of body"? Because I really don't get why you people do that stupid crap.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
No kidding. Recent civilian attacks here and abroad have demonstrated that the truck is the preferred delivery mechanism for chaos. Not rusted out rockets. You should be more worried about your local U-haul dealer.
What, you think someone might have accidentally stored a batch of video tapes or film reels inside an old rocket expansion chamber? None of those records were ever anywhere near any of NASA's mechanical operations. NASA isn't just a little office all in one warehouse where they build rockets, review data, and plan missions at the same workbench in the corner.
No, you need to be looking for a place that sells NASA surplus office furniture if you're looking for old mislaid records.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Man, it's in LA. That's 0.0 sec space!
Chris Mattern
Luky's Hardware. This is another place for airplane and aerospace surplus stuff. Nurnies and greeblies galore. Everyone asks me where I got the aircraft aluminum mystery parts for my stunt lightsabres. They were obtained there.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
I betchya Joel could build a bad-ass robot out of all that!
:D
Tom Servo 2.0!
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
My first thought when I read the subject
With the exception of Weird Stuff in Sunnyvale or Santa Clara, I havn't found any good surplus stores. Action Computers on Lawrence is okay if you need a cheap desktop for one of the kids, but Weird Stuff is the only place I enjoy shopping. So where ARE the good surplus stores in the valley? And with the Mythbusters so close by... where is that junkyard they went to on the show?
Oh that looks like it'd be a very fun place to visit. I've been to a number of military surplus auctions and always came away with some cool electronics gear, including a RADAR unit that was functional and a microwave comms system that was also functional.
But that place takes the cake. I have to say I'm thrilled by all the private attempts to launch stuff. I hope they get into orbit sooner than later.
In fact, I spent an entire day there on a short film shoot including back in their warehouse and calling it a junkyard is not very fair to a place so amazingly well-organized. There aren't many other places in the world where you will see orderly shelved nose cones of various sizes.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Close to extinction :-( Halted Specialties (now called HSC Electronics and located on Ryder, Lawrence/Central) is still in business but a shadow of what it was in the good old days. There's a surplus materials place on E Bayshore at Whipple in RWC but I don't recall the name. I too would like to know where that mythbusters place is, I think it may be Oakland somewhere.
I suggest you consult a Mr Wile E. Coyote, who has experience in these matters.
If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
Boeing Surplus
I just know that you have to cross 42 roads.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
This is where the Titan V/Phoenix rocket will come from.
Does the owner look like Andy Griffith, perchance?
#DeleteChrome
Places like that are a boon to stranded hitchhikers who need cheap replacement parts while trying to see the Universe for less than 30 Altairian dollars a day.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I wonder if they have any Warp Motivators....
I thought the headline was referring to low earth orbit. DNRTFA.
But really, restricting knowledge (either at home or abroad) won't stop armageddon. The only way to stop people willing to become suicide bombers is to make their lives worth living... social justice is required for any peace that won't closely resemble genocide.