In 1996, NASA sank a 132-foot shuttle booster training device off Port Canaveral to become an artificial reef; marine life was expected to establish itself there within four months

In 1996, a retired piece of NASA's Space Shuttle training equipment found an unusual second life. Instead of being scrapped or left on land, the 132-foot structure was sunk on purpose in the Atlantic Ocean to become an artificial reef. The object was an obsolete Solid Rocket Booster recovery training device called the Ocean Training Fixture, or OTF, according to a news release from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, issued six days after the sinking, on April 17, 1996.

A space training device heads underwater