Two of the most recognizable test structures on NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center campus are coming down next weekend in a highly choreographed, safety-driven demolition that agency leaders say is the opening move in a much larger modernization push now backed by guaranteed federal dollars in President Donald Trump’s sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill.

NASA will conduct the planned, controlled demolition of the Dynamic Test Stand and the Propulsion and Structural Test Facility — better known to the Rocket City as the “T-Tower” — on Saturday, January 10, according to information shared with Yellowhammer News.

The buildings have reached the end of their safe operational life and have been targeted for removal as part of a long-planned effort to modernize Marshall’s footprint and reduce the growing cost, and risk, of maintaining aging infrastructure.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement to Yellowhammer News the exercise is both a safety necessity and a strategic prerequisite to fully capitalize on the law’s infrastructure guarantees.

“This work reflects smart stewardship of taxpayer resources. Clearing outdated infrastructure allows NASA to safely modernize, streamline operations, and fully leverage the infrastructure investments signed into law by President Trump to keep Marshall positioned at the forefront of aerospace innovation,” Isaacman said.

The removal of the two aging facilities is the phase of a broader “cleanup and modernization” initiative that will ultimately retire 25 outdated structures on Marshall’s main campus footprint.

According to NASA, that will serve to reduce long-term maintenance burdens, eliminate safety liabilities, and free up space for a new generation of facilities as NASA shifts toward what its leadership calls a “future of exploration.”

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Though a necessary hurdle, it’s still historic for the agency and the federal government as a whole.

What makes the moment historic is what’s driving the timing: A new federal funding structure that effectively forces NASA to modernize on a deadline.

In Washington, ‘infrastructure’ funding typically means big plans with slow appropriations.

But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last July, is different in a way that does matter big for Huntsville.

Inside the law is a $1 billion “manned spaceflight centers” infrastructure appropriation — money intended specifically for capital improvements at the NASA centers that build, test, launch, and operate America’s human spaceflight programs.

Crucially for Alabama, the law sets minimum allocations and hard obligation deadlines that effectively create a “use it on schedule” mandate.

For Marshall Space Flight Center, the statute directs NASA to obligate “not less than $100,000,000” by fiscal year 2026 for infrastructure improvements at the Huntsville center — a floor written into federal law, not a hopeful line item in an annual request.

It also imposes a ramp of deadlines: At least 50% of the Marshall infrastructure funding must be obligated by September 30, 2028 – 100% must be obligated by September 30, 2029.

That’s where demolition comes in.

Clearing obsolete facilities is one of the fastest ways a federal campus can move from planning to action.

Before NASA can pour new concrete, reroute utilities, or build the next generation of engineering and fabrication spaces, it has to remove the buildings that are no longer mission-useful, no longer cost-effective to maintain, or no longer safe to operate – and convert that footprint into buildable, modernized space.

While Marshall’s broader 25-structure cleanup is expected to unfold in phases, the Dynamic Test Stand and T-Tower will mean ‘go’ for the Rocket City’s literal transition from the Apollo-era skyline to the next era’s campus footprint.