KENNEDY SPACE CENTER LAUNCH COMPLEX 39

'Launch Complex 39' is a large site and a collection of facilities at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, USA, originally built for the Apollo program, and later modified to support Space Shuttle operations. NASA will again modify LC-39 starting in 2007 to accommodate Project Constellation.

Contents

History

Space shuttle usage

Future usage

LC-39B (Post-Shuttle)

LC-39A (Post-Shuttle)

Other changes

Gallery

See also

External links

History

Prior to the construction of the complex, State Road A1A ran east of the complex. Along this rural ocean road was United States Coast Guard Station Chester Shoals.
The initial design of the launch complex contained five pads that were evenly spaced 8700 feet apart to avoid damage in the event of a pad explosion. Three were scheduled for construction (shown), two reserved for future use (one shown). The numbering of the pads at the time was from north to south, with the northern most being LC39A, and the southern being LC39C. LC39A was never built, and LC39C became LC39A in 1963. With today's numbering, LC39C would be north of LC39B. LC39D (visible as an outline on the plan to the left) would have been due west of LC39C. LC39E (not shown) would be due north of the mid-distance between LC39C and LC39D, with LC39E forming the top of a triangle, and equidistant from LC39C and LC39D. Today, the crawler way stub that would lead to these pads is located one mile west of LC39A, and 1.5 miles south of LC39B. TerraServer Image The accompanying map also shows the unbuilt Nuclear Assembly Building (NAB).
The pads were previously used for launches of the Saturn V rocket for the Project Apollo moon missions. The original structure of the pads were remodeled for the needs of the shuttle, first starting with LC39A after the last Saturn V launch, which carried Skylab, in 1973, and in 1977 for LC39B after the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. LC39 during the Apollo era were just launchpads - the umbilical/service towers were attached to the launch platform--the only modification made was the so-called "milkstool" which allowed the Saturn IB rocket (for all manned Skylab missions, the unlaunched Skylab Rescue, and ASTP) to use the Saturn V launch tower. For the Shuttle, the pad has a fixed tower (leftover from the Apollo-Saturn era) and a rotating service platform, used to protect the Shuttle Orbiter and to install vertically-handled payloads into the payload bay.


The first use of LC39 came in 1967 with the first Saturn V launch, carrying the unmanned Apollo 4 spacecraft. The second unmanned launch, Apollo 6, also used LC39A. With the exception of Apollo 10, which used LC39B (due to the "all-up" testing resulting in a 2-month turnaround period), all manned Apollo-Saturn V launches, commencing with Apollo 8, used LC39A. After the launch of Skylab in 1974, using the Saturn INT-21 rocket (a two-stage variation of the Saturn V rocket originally intended for the Apollo Applications Program, LC39A was reconfigured for the Space Shuttle and was used for the first Shuttle launch (STS-1, using the ''Columbia'' in 1981. After Apollo 10, LC39B was kept as a backup launch facility in the case of the destruction of LC39A, but saw service for all three Skylab missions, the ASTP flight, as well as unlaunched Skylab Rescue flight. After ASTP, LC39B underwent the same reconfiguration as LC39A, but due to necessary modifications (mainly to allow the facility to service a modified Centaur-G upper stage), along with budgetary restraints, it was not ready until 1986, and the first Shuttle launch to use it was the ill-fated STS 51-L flight – the Challenger Disaster (Interestingly, LC39A was the launch pad for the first (STS-1) and last mission (STS-107) of ''Columbia'').

Space shuttle usage

In order for the shuttle to reach orbit, it must have enough thrust to leave the pull of gravity from the earth. The thrust is provided by a combination of the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) and the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs). The SRBs are full of solid propellant, hence their name. The SSMEs use a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (LOX) from the External Tank (ET), as the shuttle does not have fuel tanks for the SSMEs. Months before launch, the 3 main components of the "stack" are brought together in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). All of the components are placed on a Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP). The SRBs arrive in segments via rail car from their manufacturing facility in Utah, the ET arrives from its manufacturing facility in Louisiana by barge and the space shuttle waits in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF). The SRBs are first stacked and then the ET is mounted between them. Then using a massive crane, the Shuttle is lowered and connected to the ET. When entire stack integration is complete it is moved by the Crawler-Transporter 3-4 miles to the pad over eight hours.
At the pad, the MLP is lowered onto several pedestals, and the Crawler-Transporter moves off the pad to a staging area a safe distance away. Each pad contains a two-piece access tower system, the Fixed Service Structure (FSS) and the Rotating Service Structure (RSS). The FSS permits access to the shuttle via a retractable arm and a "beanie cap" to capture vented LOX from a filled ET. The RSS contains a clean room, offers access to the orbiter's payload bay, protection from the elements and can protect the shuttle in winds up to 60 knots. Also at each pad are large cryogenic tanks that store the fuel liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (LOX) fuel for the SSMEs. The highly explosive nature of these chemicals results in numerous safety measures at the Launch Complex. NASA has calculated that the minimum safe distance in the event of a fully fueled space shuttle stack is three miles for personnel, and 8700 feet between pads. To prevent massive damage to the shuttle and the boosters, 300,000 gallons of water are dumped onto the launch platform to buffer the sound during launch. Due to the immense heating of the water, a great amount of steam is produced during launch. Before tanking operations begin and all the way through lift off, non-essential personnel are cleared out of this hazard area. The Launch Control Center and VAB are almost exactly three miles away.
In the case of emergency, the launch complex has an emergency elevator system for quick shuttle personnel evacuation. Leaving the shuttle, the crew proceeds to an emergency elevator which drops the crew to the ground at speeds up to 60 miles per hour (mph). This is a basket on a cable which drops at a steep angle away from the site. From there, the crew board, and drive, a modified M113 Armored Personnel Carrier to a triangular helicopter pad located a couple hundred feet from the platform and fly away from the complex to safety. It should be noted that as NASA safety rules require all non-crew members to be well away from the pad; the crew must do all this for themselves.

Future usage

With the planned retirement of the Shuttle in 2010, NASA will modify the two launch pads to accommodate the manned Ares I (formerly the Crew Launch Vehicle – CLV) and the unmanned Ares V (formerly the Cargo Launch Vehicle – CaLV) in support of Project Constellation. Prior to the announcement that Ares would use LC-39, officials in Florida were concerned by the possibility that the Space Shuttle's successor project may not have launched from Kennedy Space Center.

LC-39B (Post-Shuttle)

With the need to keep a Shuttle launch schedule, along with the need to start testing of the new Ares I rocket, NASA deactivated LC-39B on January 1, 2007, thus making the nighttime launch of STS-116, which occurred on December 9, 2006 the last regularly scheduled mission. After the turnover of the pad from Shuttle operations to Constellation operations, the pad is kept in reserve for the upcoming STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. This is due in part to it not being possible to launch a STS-3xx-series rescue mission from LC-39A at the same time, and that the assigned orbiter ''Atlantis'', would not be in the same inclination as that of the International Space Station. Between STS-116 and STS-125, LC-39B will undergo the beginnings of its conversion to the Ares I facility with the building of three to four new tall lightning masts similar in use on the Atlas V and Delta IV launch pads at Cape Canaveral. The main period of renovation, however, will occur after STS-125. During this phase, the RSS will be removed and a Shuttle MLP will be used to launch in conjunction with the Ares I-X flight, which will utilize a four-segment solid rocket first stage with a dummy fifth segment and boilerplate second stage. During the conversion period, NASA will, in keeping with the simplicity called for by the ESAS report, strip LC-39B of its FSS, rendering the Apollo-like "clean pad" design for the first time since 1977, and, at the same time will build two new MLPs that will support both the Ares I and its launch umbilical tower, but yet will allow NASA to continue using the existing Crawler-Transporters. The new tower, similar in appearance to the Saturn V tower, will only have two "swing" arms; one for the crew (along with an attached "clean room") and one for the Orion Service Module. A pair of collect "chocks," similar in function to the existing chocks used on the Shuttle Orbiter, will be used to both fuel, drain, and vent the LH₂ and LOX for the Ares I second stage (the Shuttle chocks only fill and drain, with separate vent arms being used). In addition, a new "roller coaster" escape system, replacing the existing slide wire system, will connect the launch tower with a new fortified bunker located 1000 meters from the pad; a necessity in the case of a launch pad emergency. By the time the entire Ares I stack is finished being tested (in 2012), with both the solid-fueled first stage and liquid-fueled second stage, LC-39B will have all traces of Space Shuttle hardware removed, and LC-39B will become a "clean" pad for the first time since 1977. The LH₂, LOX, and water tanks will be the only structures left over from the Shuttle era. The pad would later undergo additional modifications, mainly in addition storage capacity, to be used as a spare Ares V launch facility in the case of the destruction of nearby LC-39A.

LC-39A (Post-Shuttle)

Just like the first 24 shuttle flights, this pad will support the final shuttle operations starting with STS-117 until 2011 and then will undergo deactivation once the Shuttle is retired.
After this date, like LC-39B, LC-39A will have both the FSS and RSS removed to render the "clean" pad approach as required by the ESAS, but LC-39A will be used primarily as the launch pad for the Ares V rocket after 2018, and as such, will undergo additional modifications to accommodate extra LH2 and LOX storage at the site, along with the lightning masts similar to those used on LC-39B (although they may be built at the same time as those slated for LC-39B in order to save costs).
Because of the in-line design of the Ares V, the three existing MLPs, which dates back to Apollo and modified to accommodate the Shuttle, will undergo a major overhaul in order to accommodate the Ares V and its launch umbilical tower, which will have Apollo-like swing arms for the Earth Departure Stage and the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM). Due to their age and the need to support the immense weight of the Ares V and its tower (which will weigh more than the Saturn V system), the current Crawler-Transporters, in use since 1967, will be retired and replaced with two new state-of-the-art models that will also handle the Ares I and its MLP system. Although it would be primarily used for Ares V flights, LC-39A can also support launches of the Ares I in the event LC-39B is damaged or destroyed in a launch pad accident.

Other changes

The VAB is currently undergoing modifications to accommodate the simultaneous assembly and checkout operations for both the Shuttle and for the Ares I. Eventually, the VAB will undergo further modifications to allow for the assembly of both an Ares I and Ares V when lunar missions commence after 2018. NASA will also build two new MLPs designed to handle the Ares I with the current Crawler-Transporters and will eventually replace the Apollo-era machines with new units when the Ares V comes on line.
Although planned, yet never built, and not mentioned in the ESAS report, NASA may build a LC-39C that may be used primarily to accommodate future Mars missions when more than one Ares V would be required to launch the Mars-bound spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. While the LC-39C would been seen as a future necessity for Mars missions, the addition of LC-39C would also guarantee NASA a needed "insurance policy" in the event in which either LC-39A or LC-39B would be destroyed – the destruction of either pad would allow NASA to continue Moon missions at the current rate, but yet would allow Mars missions to continue at a somewhat reduced rate.
Although floated by the media, but not mentioned in the ESAS report would also use two existing launch facilities at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) for the launching of the Ares I rocket. Initially built in the 1960s to accommodate both the Saturn I and later Saturn IB rockets, two existing pads, Launch Complex 34 (LC-34) and Launch Complex 37A have been floated for conversion by NASA into Ares I facilities, mainly for unmanned Ares I launches, but with modifications, could be used as manned launch facilities.
LC-34, the most well-known Apollo-era launch facility other than LC-39, is the site of the tragic Apollo 1 fire in 1967 and the triumphant Apollo 7 mission that followed in October, 1968. Last used in 1968, NASA originally planned to use LC-34 for the three manned Skylab flights, but instead decided to modify the LC-39 facilities for those three flights, as well as the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz flight. Currently, only the launch pedestal remains and it has since become a memorial to the three-member Apollo 1 crew that was killed there in 1967, just 19 years before the ''Challenger'' Disaster.
LC-37A, on the other hand, was never used by NASA during the Apollo program; its sister LC-37B pad being used for the unmanned Apollo 203 and Apollo 5 flights before being deactivated and converted for use in the launching of the Delta IV EELV. Although NASA has not yet made a decision to use the Ares I as an unmanned satellite launcher (it is capable of placing medium-sized satellites into LEO), but, if such a decision is made, the assembly and launch operations at either pad will resemble the operations at the SLC 6 launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, in which all of the elements would be assembled at the pad itself, as opposed to LC-39 in which assembly occurs in one location and launching occurs at another.

Gallery

See also

★ John F. Kennedy Space Center

★ List of Merritt Island launch sites

External links

★ KSC page on Launch Complex 39 Facilities