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Tower that supported moon race torn down

By Times wire
Published August 9, 2005

CAPE CANAVERAL - A 179-foot steel tower that supported rocket launches during the moon race in the 1960s was demolished Saturday at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The site was last used for a Department of Defense rocket launch on April 6, 1978.

The cleanup is being jointly handled by the 45th Space Wing, Environmental Protection Agency and Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

TODAY'S SHUTTLE LANDING: NASA-TV at www.nasa.gov) was to begin its coverage at 2 a.m. TV coverage was to begin at 4 a.m.

Wildfires spread

POMEROY, Wash. - Residents of at least 150 homes in southeastern Washington were forced to evacuate as a fire that had charred as much as 27,000 acres moved north out of the Umatilla National Forest onto private land.

"At the moment it's zero percent contained, burning vigorously in timber, grass and brush," said John Townsley of the Northwest Fire Coordination Center in Portland, Ore.

The cause of the fire, which started Friday, was not yet known.

In central Washington, a 1,075-acre wildfire near Lake Wenatchee that had threatened 140 homes was 50 percent contained.

Elsewhere, 10 houses near Alberton, Mont., were evacuated Saturday. The fire was one of four that started Thursday along Interstate 90 in western Montana that had burned a total of 3,300 acres.

[Last modified August 9, 2005, 01:24:12]