The former spot at Edwards Air Force Base was the same site of a special gantry called the Mate-Demate Device, which lifted Space Shuttle orbiters off the ground and onto the back of Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Building a 77,580 square foot hangar to process manned spacecraft after landing in Kern County, California, would honor this legacy and ensure safe and efficient handling before their trip back to the launch site in Florida. This facility is crucial for maintaining our nation's leadership in space exploration. Please sign this petition to support building this essential hangar.

Edwards Air Force Base in California was the site of the first Space Shuttle landing and became a backup site to the prime landing location, the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center. Several runways are arrayed on the dry lakebed at Rogers Dry Lake,[6] and there are also concrete runways. Space shuttle landings on the lake bed took place on Runways 05/23, 15/33 and 17/35. Of the concrete strips, the main Runway 04/22 was utilized. During the renovation of 04/22, a temporary runway (with the same designation) was constructed parallel to it and used for one landing (STS-126).

Five ALT free flights and fifty-four operational Space Shuttle missions landed on Edwards Air Force Base runways, bringing the grand total total to fifty-nine.

The historic steel tower that for 30 years was used to mount NASA space shuttles atop jumbo jets to fly them cross-country after they landed in California is now being demolished.

The facility was comprised of two 100-foot (30.5 m) towers with stationary work platforms at the 20-, 40-, 60- and 80-foot levels on each tower. A horizontal structure, spanning the two towers, controlled and guided a large lift beam that attached to the orbiters to raise and lower them.

A 25,000 square-foot hangar once used with Armstrong's MDD is being repurposed for other projects at the center.

Prior to the demolition beginning, Grimshaw and his team sought other uses for the Mate-Demate Device, including supporting NASA's next class of crewed spacecraft including Dream Chaser , and for use by the Air Force as well.

After President Richard M. Nixon announced the Space Shuttle programon 5 January 1972, Edwards was chosen for Space Shuttle orbitertesting. The prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise was carried to altitude by the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) and released. In all, 13 test flights were conducted with the Enterprise and the SCA to determine their flight characteristics and handling.

After Space Shuttle Columbia became the first shuttle launched into orbit on 12 April 1981, it returned to Edwards for landing. The airbase's immense lakebeds and its proximity to Plant 42, where the shuttle was serviced before relaunch, were important factors in its selection and it continued to serve as the primary landing area for the space shuttle until 1991. After that time, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida was favored. This saved the considerable cost of transporting the shuttle from California back to Florida, but Edwards AFB and White Sands Space Harbor continued to serve as backups for the duration of the shuttle program. Shuttles landed at Edwards as recently as 9 August 2005 (STS-114), 22 June 2007 (STS-117), 30 November 2008 (STS-126), 24 May 2009 (STS-125), and 11 September 2009 (STS-128) due to rain and ceiling events at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility. STS-126 was the only mission to land on temporary runway 04 at Edwards, as the refurbished main runway was operational from STS-119 through to the retirement of the shuttles