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Years Later: Day Two: Tuesday, August 8, 2001, Briefing, Part 3
The launch is nothing compare to what we’ll be expecting this week.
We board our buses and proceed to drive to the Apollo/Saturn V and Launch
Complex Centers. Our tour guide would be Glenn Perez, lead avionics engineer.
We pass the Headquarters Building where the management offices are located
for all operations and ISS Center. Then our bus turned towards the Orbiter
Processing Facilities (OPF) where the space shuttles are stored and refurbished,
including cleaning, heat shield servicing, component testing and parts
replacement are accomplished. I was amazed to see the enormous Vehicle
Assembly Building (VAB). VLAB is one of the world’s largest structures
in volume, enclosing about 129,428,000 cubic feet. It is here that Space
Shuttles are assembled into flight-ready space vehicles before being taken
to the launch pad. Next to VLAB, is the launch Control Center's Firing
Room 1 which conduct Space Shuttle launches. The launch Control Center
is equipped with the highly automated Launch Processing System, designed
for Space Shuttle checkout and launch.
The route our buses used to get to VLAB is the same route the Orbiter is driven to the Launch Complex Centers. We pass the giant Crawler Transporter (CT) that carries the Orbiter between VLAB and the pads. The movie Marooned comes to mind when I first saw the film in the 70s on wide-screen. The CT is about half the size of a soccer field and weigh over 6 million pounds with 456 tread belt "shoes" on each vehicle. Each of the vehicles has eight belts, and each belt has 57 shoes. Each shoe is 7-1/2 feet long and 1-1/2 feet wide and weighs approximately 2,100 pounds. . We would get see a shoe up close at the Apollo/Saturn V Center. The CT is measured 131 Feet Long; 113 Feet Wide; 20 Feet High, and designed to move space vehicles to the launch pad. A transporter can lift and carry 14,500,000 pounds. Normal speed of the CT is 1 mph when it has a load on top and twice the speed without a load. Our cameras couldn't capture the entire structure but managed to get a mpeg movie for 2001Exhibit.Org.
From the crawler, we pass the Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry or LC-39, houses a Saturn V F-1 engines bell. The Observation Gantry near LC-39 offers the best all-around view of the Space Shuttle Launch Pads, VLAB and the CT. But we didn't stop there because our tour bus was going straight to LC-39A pad where STS-105 is sitting and ready for launch. This was the best part of the tour. Seeing this massive launch tower and ramp leading up to the pad reminded me of the old Hollywood Sci- Fi movies from the 50s like, Rocketship XM and Destination Moon but this was real thing.
Our guide had the bus stopped for a 15-minute photo opportunity, which was a rare occasion for the tour. We just had to be careful not to step on the little turtles roaming around the grassy areas and there were plenty. I had almost forgotten the 100-degree weather after enjoying an air condition bus ride, but I was in awe to be so close to the Orbiter. Near the entrance to the pad, hung a large banner that read, "Go Discovery!" Of course, we needed to get our pictures taken in front of the massive tower and sign, so we made our tour guide work as our paparazzo. Unfortunately, the Orbiter was on the other side of the tower, so it was difficult to see it through the viewfinder.
Our next stop was the LC-39B pad, just north of LC-39A pad. Since there was no Shuttle on the pad, our guide managed to get the sentry to let us drive around the structure for photo opportunities. The structured is constructed of 68,00 cubic yards of reinforced concrete. On top of the pad are six steel pedestals used to support the launch platform and where the Orbiter sits.
As we pass the Banana River viewing area where the Apollo/Saturn V Center is located, our guide said that the viewing area is approximately 3.5 miles from the LC-39A pad, which we'll watch STS-105 lift off. We then swung past the VLAB again and back to the Visitor Complex. We spent the better half of the day in the largest space store, the Gift Gantry, Orbit Cafeteria & Lunch Pad. The store stocked everything from the latest NASA wardrobe, space models, and space collectibles. The Rocket Garden display was closed off to the public and under construction for renovation. The Rocket Garden consists of many of the rockets used for both manned and unmanned spaceflight. After a long unbearable hot day, we drove back to our motel and met up her Seefred's cousin, Pete to spend a nice fulfilling dinner at a local restaurant to celebrate a successful launch of STS-105 and her crew.
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