NASA's Plum Brook Station re-created as unique test facility

by Tom Breckenridge/Plain Dealer Reporter
Saturday July 25, 2009, 3:00 PM

Business and elected leaders say a runway large enough to handle spacecraft cargo holds the key for a renaissance of NASA's Plum Brook Station, 50 miles west of Cleveland.

The federal space agency is pouring $152 million into a cavernous test facility at the site south of Sandusky, in preparation for a return to the moon.

NASA is creating a unique test site, officials say, where crews will run space simulations that shake and blast large space components with heat, cold and sound.
And it could be enhanced with a 9,000-foot runway on the southern end of the 6,400-acre federal expanse in Erie County's Perkins Township. That would make it easier to get spacecraft to the facility for testing, giving Plum Brook the same easy accessibility as competing space centers.

Officials say the developments could lead to hundreds, if not thousands, of new jobs for north central Ohio.

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