Eye candy

[sts60]

At KSC for work, so a few assorted images for your amusement.

First, the rocket garden at the visitor complex.

[sts60]

Next, the Mercury-Redstone at the badging office.

[sts60]

Launch Complex 39 is being extensively revamped.   Pad 39A is being leased by SpaceX for future heavy-lift launches.  Pad 39B is being reworked for SLS.  This is what it looks like without the gantry and Mobile Launch Platform (both also being revamped).  Two of the lightning towers flank the pad, and the water deluge tank is visible on the right as well.



A closer look at one of the lightning towers.  For scale, the roughly triangular feature about midway up is a catwalk.



Looking across the flame trench at the piping for the water deluge system.  Compare the Porta-Potty in the lower left to the piping for scale.



Looking across the flame trench the other direction, towards Pad 39A (still sporting Shuttle configuration with gantry and Rotating Service Structure).  In the distance, on the Cape side from left to right, are visible Space Launch Complexes 41 (Atlas V), 40 (Falcon), and 37 (Delta IV).  The pillar marked '3' is one of the hold-down posts that the Mobile Launch Platform rests on.

[sts60]

Rockets need oxidizer.  Here's 900,000 gallons.  It's 105 steps up, which is kind of a drag in Florida in mid-July, but there's a nice breeze going up top.



The Saturn V took a lot of filling.  Here are the pumps that delivered the LOX to it, at 10,000 gallons per minute.  (That's about 5 fire pumpers running flat out.)  They were only used for S5 launches.



And here's the piping for the LO₂ to get to the pad.  On the right is the higher-capacity piping used for the Saturn V.   On the left is the piping used for Shuttle (and to be used for SLS as well), driven by different pumps.  The image is deceptive; it's a long run to the pad.

[raven]

The immense tank of LOX with emblazoned in bold, massive letters ' NO SMOKING' cracks me up for some reason. But, yes, very much eye candy. 

[Glom]

Cool. The complex 39 pads being bare is weird after 30 years of the Space Shuttle, but it is like it was back in the Apollo days.

[Allan F]

Nice pictures. And a good idea to have some human-sized objects in view too. Those structures are so huge, a picture really can't convey the feeling. Hope I someday get the time and money to go visit.

[Sus_pilot]

I should know this, but which way is north?  The LOX pipeline photo would be a good reference.  I'm curious because, in the book (I forgot the title), documenting the construction of the Saturn and launch complex, there was a reference to the importance of surveying true north accurately.

[sts60]

The Crawlerway and access road in the first picture run due North up towards the pad, and the flame trench also runs N-S.  The LOX ball is northwest of the pad, so in the last picture you're looking southeast along the pipelines.  Looking at satellite/aerial view from Google Maps, you can read the LIQUID OXYGEN legend on the ball - at least with the image used as of the time I'm posting.  (The tank to the NE is the LH₂ ball.)

You can also pan over to the visitor complex to the SSW, past the KSC Industrial Complex, and see the aerial view of the Rocket Garden and ET/SRB display outside the building housing Atlantis.  Fun.

[Sus_pilot]

The book was Moonport, BTW.  Fascinating read.   

Thanks!

[scooter]

Nice work...more than a few of us here would love to join you there...been there a few times, a real Disneyland for space nuts...
Is that one MLP with the big prototype umbilical tower still intact? It was something they rolled out to a pad as part of the Constellation activity.

(eta...one rocket I'd love to see is the old Viking, the Model 7 one with the big fins...but, alas, none were preserved, only one of the later models at the Smithsonian, those rockets had an amazing story behind them)

[sts60]

I have a pretty good picture of the MLP/umbilical tower, currently being modified for SLS.  Also some more from some launch complexes on the Cape side, etc.  I'll post more when I have a chance. 

[sts60]

Here's the obligatory "scale" picture of the VAB, with some guys just stepping out...



I may have posted this before.  This was from over 20 years ago, with Columbia being prepared for lifting and rotation prior to stacking.



I saw her on this trip, too, again in the VAB.  The remnants of the vehicle are carefully maintained and still being used for research.  Thousands of workers and volunteers endured often miserable conditions searching across Texas to bring her home.

[sts60]

Nice work...more than a few of us here would love to join you there...been there a few times, a real Disneyland for space nuts...
Is that one MLP with the big prototype umbilical tower still intact? It was something they rolled out to a pad as part of the Constellation activity...

Here ya go.  Sparks were flying from underneath as crews were cutting metal in the platform to accommodate the SLS rocket exhausts.

[sts60]

Rollout of the MLCV/Orion vehicle for Exploration Flight Test-1 in December.  The vehicle is leaving the Operations & Checkout Building for the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where it will be fueled.