Inside NASA's off-limits 'Rubber Room' bunker hidden beneath the launchpad
Not many people have seen inside NASA’s top secret room located 40 feet below the surface of the Earth.
Known as the ‘Rubber Room’, the space is strictly off limits and hidden deep beneath NASA’s launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center.
The main reason it was built was due to the fact that working within close range of a rocket that is due to blast off into space can be pretty dangerous.
Encased in concrete, the bunker was designed to protect astronauts and crew in the event of an emergency at one of the launchpads.
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Some rockets there contain over two and a half thousand tonnes of propellant and if it suddenly exploded, it would have the force of an atomic bomb.
To prevent an incident from killing everyone on the launchpad, the space agency decided to create an underground bunker where the crew could seek shelter for several days.
But that’s not the reason people are talking about it now - the room is strictly off limits and has been inaccessible for decades.
But that didn’t stop a YouTuber known as Jack Gordon going in search of it, as he uploaded a video detailing how he spent 24 hours at the top of a NASA launch pad.
There, the content creator explored the grounds and tried unsuccessfully to find his way to the secret bunker.
However, a clip by Primal Space does shed some light on what it’s like for people inside, explaining: “The crew had to make their way to level A inside the mobile launch platform, the massive two storey structure that supported the Saturn 5.
“Once it arrived at the pad, a small hatch in the platform would connect to a structure that stuck out from the launchpad.
“This was a 60 meter long slide that started inside the platform and went down through the concrete launchpad until it reached the bunker.”
The slide would be sprayed with sprinklers to help the crew slide down more easily.
Reaching the end of the drop, they would arrive in a place called the rubber room, which was lined with thick walls of rubber to absorb energy from an explosion.
The rubber was also meant to help people slow down at the end of the slide but that didn’t always work and one worker broke several bones while using it.
There are calls by fans to turn the room into a tourist attraction but - as it’s directly under an active launchpad - it doesn’t look like the forbidden water slide will be made available to the public anytime soon.