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Author
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Topic: Photo of the week 670 (August 26, 2017)
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heng44
Member Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 08-26-2017 03:17 AM
   
 A partial stack of solid rocket boosters is being transferred from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B on June 11, 1990. Stacking operations were underway in the VAB when a leak was discovered in the STS-35/Columbia vehicle at Launch Pad 39A. Repairs required that Columbia be rolled back to the VAB. In order to make room in the VAB for STS-35, the booster stack had to be temporarily transferred to Pad 39B. These boosters were originally assigned to the STS-40 mission, but were reassigned to support STS-41. |
Tom
Member Posts: 1597
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 08-26-2017 06:45 AM
A lot of traffic on the crawler way in those days! |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-26-2017 09:46 AM
I guess there is a reason why they didn't just park that MLP north of the VAB, like they did in 1999 when the MLP with the STS-93 external tank and solid rocket boosters had to make way for the STS-96 rollback from 39B to the VAB.To avoid the risk of lightning, I suppose. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-26-2017 07:52 PM
It turns out that the STS-93 external tank and solid rocket boosters were parked north of the VAB only temporarily: The STS-93 stack of solid rocket boosters and external tank sits at the Mobile Launcher Platform park site waiting for lightning shield wires to be installed on the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in the background. The stack is being temporarily stored outside the VAB while Space Shuttle Discovery undergoes repair to hail damage in High Bay 1. Discovery was rolled back from Pad 39B to the VAB for repairs because access to all of the damaged areas was not possible at the pad. The STS-93 stack will be moved under the wires at the VAB for protection until Discovery returns to the pad, later this week. |
OV-105
Member Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 08-27-2017 04:18 AM
I remember seeing a photo of two full boosters getting moved. There was a bar, for lack of a better word, at the top ET attachment points. I want to say it was after STS-107. |
heng44
Member Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 08-27-2017 08:05 AM
quote:
Originally posted by OV-105:
I remember seeing a photo of two full boosters getting moved. There was a bar, for lack of a better word, at the top ET attachment points. I want to say it was after STS-107.
It was before STS-1. See Photo of the Week 24: August 15, 1980: the solid rocket boosters that will help launch STS-1 are rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building, mounted on the Mobile Launcher Platform. The crawler-transporter carried its 9.63 million pound load 125 meters out of the VAB. The move was part of a test to see how much the 700-ton boosters would flex under the cold-induced contraction of the external tank filled with its load of supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. The broad stiffener beam connected the solids at the forward ET attach points. The two hydraulic beams at the aft attach point induced bending motions, which were measured by scanners located at various points along the boosters.  |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-27-2017 08:45 AM
There was a similar SRB rollout on Nov. 17 and also Nov. 21 in 2003. |
OV-105
Member Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 08-27-2017 12:27 PM
That's the one I was thinking of. Thanks LM-12. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-27-2017 12:44 PM
A pair of solid rocket boosters, without the stiffener beam, were also moved by mobile launch platform from High Bay 1 to High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building on Oct 26, 2010 in preparation for STS-134. |
Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 08-28-2017 12:48 PM
SRB logistics seemed very busy... |
damnyankee36
Member Posts: 37
From: Alamogordo, NM USA
Registered: Aug 2017
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posted 08-30-2017 01:13 PM
Anybody know why the other VAB bays weren't usable for storage instead of moving the partial stack outside? |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-30-2017 10:31 PM
STS-38 Atlantis was on MLP-1 in High Bay 1. It rolled out of the VAB on June 18. On the west side of the VAB, High Bay 2 only became available in 2000 when the crawlerway leading to High Bay 2 was restored. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3208
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 09-01-2017 10:29 PM
MLP-2 with the solid rocket boosters was rolled back from Pad 39B to the VAB on June 20.
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