The space shuttle is the undisputed star of launch day, with its towering fire and thunderous sound as it soars into the heavens. It gets significant help, though, from a robust supporting actor in the form of a gray launch pad and its weave of wiring, pipes and even a crane.
The pad area is a rough circle more than a mile-and-a-half around. Inside that circle lie huge propellant tanks, banks of high-speed and television cameras, and a water tower that deluges the pad just before liftoff. Baskets anchored beneath high-tension cables stand ready to evacuate astronauts from a shuttle to a protective bunker. The shuttle stack stands in the middle of it all, the ultimate focus of human and hardware attention.All at a place less than a mile from the ocean that broils in the Florida summer and chills in the winter. As with so many places at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, it's a unique world to work in."I kind of feel like I found home," said Kevin Panik, NASA's Pad Facility Integration manager. "I come to work and it's not work. I'm driving in and I'm smiling."David Sutherland, Pad Operations manager for United Space Alliance, started working at the shuttle launch pads in 1987."I'm a lucky guy, no doubt about it," Sutherland said. "I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd have a job like this. Not just being an engineer on shuttle, but being manager of operations. Pretty lucky guy."Sutherland saw the pad the first time during a job interview.
"I just couldn't imagine that it was this big," he recalled. "It just looked so complicated, that there was so much to it that I'd never understand it, never get it."About 170 engineers and technicians work at the launch pad to ready a shuttle for liftoff, along with a few dozen more specialists who come and go during the 30-day preparation period at the pad. Those preparations range from the broad tasks of connecting hundreds of wires and cables when the shuttle stack rolls to the pad to the delicate work of moving multi-ton payloads inches at a time into the cargo bay."You can't know it all," Panik said. "There's some 50, 75 different systems. You've got to realize you can't know it all."The crews who work on the launch pad are affectionately called "pad rats" and they average between 16 and 17 years of experience, Sutherland said. Their specialties rang
e from handling extremely toxic chemicals to tying down metal platforms, rails and equipment with rope to prevent it from accidentally impacting the spacecraft. The team also is cross-trained in a number of specialties. Sutherland said it takes about two years to get comfortable with a system."I have a high level of confidence in their expertise," Sutherland said. "We're very comfortable with what we do."Shuttles lifted off two pads during the 30 years of the program, Launch Complex 39A and Launch Complex 39B, or just "pad A" and "pad B" to those who worked on them. Built for the Apollo/Saturn V combination, the pads were identical and each had its own work force during most of the shuttle years. Though shuttles occasionally were on both pads together, the practical benefit of having two pads was to let one be refurbished while launches took place on the other.
A crawler-transporter moves the shuttle stack, mounted on a mobile launcher platform, or MLP, the three miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building to pad A, three-and-a-half miles to pad B. The MLP is anchored to steel columns on the pad surface and connected to the rest of the pad complex.The MLP holds the shuttle stack with eight bolts that are blown apart at the same time the boosters ignite to allow the shuttle to soar into space.Also, a pair of connection masts on either side of the shuttle's aft compartment is housed on the MLP. The masts contain a battery of wires, cables and the lines that run propellants into the external tank. At launch, the connectors pull back from the shuttle into the masts where armored doors close over them to protect them from the blast.
The pads are considered by some the most advanced in the world, although straight comparisons are difficult because a pad's structure is a direct reflection of the spacecraft it is hosting. A space shuttle, with its reusable engines, delta wings and 60-foot-long cargo bay, has significantly different needs than a capsule."I know that what we do out here is a lot more complicated in that we do the final flight processing, all the propellants are loaded out here," Sutherland said. "The hypergolics are loaded at the pad. I know that at other launch facilities those type tasks are done prior to arrival on the launch pad."
NASA managers announced that space shuttle Endeavour is ready to launch next week on its final flight to the International Space Station following a daylong Flight Readiness Review on Tuesday. Endeavour is scheduled to launch Friday, April 29, at 3:47 p.m. EDT."We had a very extensive and thorough review today," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Space Operations. "I think the things that impressed me the most is that the team is still continuing to really work issues and look at the vehicle performance on each and every flight just like they would during any normal mission.""We're ready to go fly," Gerstenmaier said.
All analysis and inspections of External Fuel Tank-122 confirmed its integrity after repairs were made because of damage sustained during Hurricane Katrina, according to Gerstenmaier."It was a really good review today from both the station and shuttle prospective," said Mike Moses, chairman of the Mission Management Team. "Endeavour and the team are in great shape."Endeavour is poised on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The countdown is to begin Tuesday at 2 p.m."The final processing flow for Endeavour is going extremely well out at the pad," said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "I'm very proud of the team and we'll going to have a good launch and a good mission."The STS-134 crew is scheduled to arrive at Kennedy on Tuesday, April 26, for final launch preparations.
During space shuttle Discovery's final spaceflight, the STS-133 crew members will take important spare parts to the International Space Station along with the Express Logistics Carrier-4.Steve Bowen replaced Tim Kopra as Mission Specialist 2 following a bicycle injury on Jan. 15 that prohibited Kopra from supporting the launch window. Bowen last flew on Atlantis in May 2010 as part of the STS-132 crew. Flying on the STS-133 mission will make Bowen the first astronaut ever to fly on consecutive missions.
STS-134 Update:Astronaut Rick Sturckow will serve as a backup commander for the STS-134 space shuttle mission to facilitate continued training for the crew and support teams during STS-134 Commander Mark Kelly's absence. Kelly's wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was critically wounded in a shooting on Jan. 8 in Tucson, Ariz. Kelly remains commander of the mission, which is targeted for launch on April 19 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.STS-135 Update:The Space Shuttle Program baselined the STS-135 mission for a target launch date of June 28 at 3:48 p.m. EDT. It is NASA’s intent to fly the mission with orbiter Atlantis carrying the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to deliver supplies, logistics and spare parts to the International Space Station. The mission also will fly a system to investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing spacecraft and return a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems.In late December, the agency’s Space Operations Mission Directorate requested the shuttle and International Space Station programs take the necessary steps to maintain the capability to fly Atlantis on the STS-135 mission. The Authorization Act of 2010 directs NASA to conduct the mission, and baselining the flight enables the program to begin preparations for the mission with a target launch date of June 28. The mission would be the 135th and final space shuttle flight.
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center, teams will begin installing space shuttle Discovery's new ground umbilical carrier plate, or GUCP, this morning. Engineers will meet today to analyze data. Teams plan to have the GUCP work completed over the weekend.Technicians will trim the foam insulation around the area where two cracks were found on Discovery's external fuel tank metal exterior to inspect the surrounding areas. The cracks were found on the stringer, which is the aluminum strip that forms the section between the liquid oxygen tank and the liquid hydrogen tank, after removing foam that cracked during initial loading operations for the STS-133 launch attempt on Nov. 5.
Space Shuttle Program managers cleared space shuttle Discovery for launch Nov. 1 following an extensive review of the spacecraft and its payload. Speaking to reporters after the executive-level Flight Readiness Review at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials said Discovery is prepared for its mission, STS-133.
That is the last scheduled flight for the agency's oldest active shuttle. "We're in great shape out at the pad," Launch Director Mike Leinbach said. The countdown is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Friday, about a day after the six astronauts of Discovery arrive at Kennedy.
A set of seals was replaced over the weekend in extensive work that was completed before it could threaten the scheduled launch date. "It's a huge testament to the team doing the work," said NASA Mission Management Team Chairman Mike Moses.
e from handling extremely toxic chemicals to tying down metal platforms, rails and equipment with rope to prevent it from accidentally impacting the spacecraft. The team also is cross-trained in a number of specialties. Sutherland said it takes about two years to get comfortable with a system.
