Author Topic: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3  (Read 443817 times)

Offline ClayJar

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #300 on: 04/26/2017 08:35 pm »
In the upper left of the second picture above,

So why the interest now?  Just because LC-39 has the smell of musk on it now?

Some of us weren't around before, and by the time we would've been looking, nobody was making a big deal out of something as "mundane" as a pad's plumbing.  It had been built long ago, and it worked, so there wasn't much interest in publishing "Today's News: Nothing Happened" articles about it.  Even had I not been a year or two short of kindergarten when STS-1 flew, I don't know where I would have been able to find things like aerial photos of LC-39A outside of documentaries, which tend to concentrate on big-picture stories.

When I was in high school, my parents ended up with most of a set of "Modern Encyclopedia" from 1967.  I loved reading about the planned Apollo missions from before they happened, and I carried that volume with me for years.  Still, an encyclopedia article being mere pages, it covered nothing of plumbing or other minutiae, and my only other source was my local library with its necessarily limited selection.  It was hard to stoke one's fascination with all things space with what meager resources I could personally find.

So, being fascinated by all things even tangentially rocket-related decades later doesn't mean I'm in a cult of SpaceX.  It just means that I happen to live in a great moment in history where access and interest have come together such that a question about pad plumbing older than I am can even happen.  Even better, it can be answered.  (Valve constraints were the first hypothesis my engineering background suggested; so, thank you for being around and having that knowledge.)

Offline darkenfast

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #301 on: 04/26/2017 08:51 pm »
Thanks for asking that, ClayJar.   I was wondering what that was about as well, and I'm old enough to remember when it was all being built!  The pads have an incredible history running through ALL of their history and the snarkiness above was uncalled for.
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Offline Lar

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #302 on: 04/26/2017 09:01 pm »
In the upper left of the second picture above,

So why the interest now?  Just because LC-39 has the smell of musk on it now?

(mod hat)
The reason for the interest is that space is cool. And that we all love that there is an upswing in what is being planned and achieved. There is no need to bag on anyone for being interested. Be excellent to each other, please

(fan hat)
That said I too was fascinated by the question and really grateful you answered it Jim, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, none of us have the same set of experiences you do and we appreciate your sharing.
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline PahTo

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #303 on: 04/26/2017 09:41 pm »

...and to add to the discussion of the valve response times--the reason for the system as seen was because the deluge system was staged/staggered.  First to flood was the flame trench/exhaust holes in the MLP.  Only after liftoff did other above-MLP-surface rain birds activate (to protect the MLP surface).  Then there were others that activated to flood the aft end of the orbiter/MLP should an anomaly occur where main engines started, then shut down (as happened at least once that I remember).   

Offline rpapo

In the upper left of the second picture above,
So why the interest now?  Just because LC-39 has the smell of musk on it now?
Simple reason: I had never noticed it before.  I was quite aware that it very likely predated anything Musk.  I was just checking if anybody around here knew the reason for the strange design.  And your reason sounds as good as any.

FWIW, in the summer of 1980, while I was working as a computer programming intern, I was handed ten boxes of computer punch-cards and told to get the program contained therein to work.  Those cards were from NASA, and contained the FORTRAN code for a hydraulics simulation package developed to help design the hydraulics systems within the Space Shuttle.  We had a copy to see if we could adapt the elements included to our own work on the hydraulics systems of tractors.  As NASA software, it was essentially free for us to use.  I got it working, but only with the elements provided for the Space Shuttle.  I ran out of time to adapt it to the needs of tractor design, and frankly, I wasn't really qualified to do that.

That was the reason for my curiosity about strange hydraulics.  No "fanboi" element involved.
« Last Edit: 04/27/2017 01:49 pm by rpapo »
Following the space program since before Apollo 8.

Online jacqmans

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #305 on: 05/04/2017 01:08 pm »
I shot this video on April 18, not sure if this is the right place for it

Jacques :-)

Online Tain

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #306 on: 06/30/2017 07:21 pm »
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but last information was that all the work that is left at 39A for the first FH launch will be done after SLC-40 is active again.

In his last article, Chris Bergin mentioned that "there will be a small gap ahead of the following launch, in part due to the Eastern Range undergoing a maintenance period" until the CRS-12 launch in mid August.

So, will at least part of the missing work be done during this maintenance period? Any rumors?

Offline Lar

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #307 on: 06/30/2017 07:54 pm »
Removing RSS stuff is needful but not necessarily FH specific (needs to happen for FH but..). I hope SpaceX uses this lull to good effect.
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline M.E.T.

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #308 on: 06/30/2017 08:03 pm »
I wasn't aware of this intended "lull" until now. With a 6 week gap from beginning July to mid August, and with August also likely to be facing many potential delays considering all the transitional work that needs to take place in preperation for FH, and the potential for false starts or growing pains at LC40 before the rebuilt pad hits its stride, it may well be until September before a 2 week cadence gets going again.

Meaning a target of 20+ launches for the year suddenly seems far less likely than it did a few days ago, fresh after 9 launches in 6 months.

Offline testguy

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #309 on: 07/01/2017 12:48 am »
I wasn't aware of this intended "lull" until now. With a 6 week gap from beginning July to mid August, and with August also likely to be facing many potential delays considering all the transitional work that needs to take place in preperation for FH, and the potential for false starts or growing pains at LC40 before the rebuilt pad hits its stride, it may well be until September before a 2 week cadence gets going again.

Meaning a target of 20+ launches for the year suddenly seems far less likely than it did a few days ago, fresh after 9 launches in 6 months.

Don't forget west coast launches.  20 plus for this year is still probable providing there is not a major mishap.

Offline IanThePineapple

Will any FH/Crew Dragon work be done during the range outage, or just continued RSS demolition?

Offline dorkmo

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #311 on: 07/01/2017 02:23 am »
Will any FH/Crew Dragon work be done during the range outage, or just continued RSS demolition?

some of us were speculating they might try to work on the FH hold downs, but i dont think anything has been announced.

Offline cscott

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #312 on: 07/01/2017 01:15 pm »
I wasn't aware of this intended "lull" until now. With a 6 week gap from beginning July to mid August, and with August also likely to be facing many potential delays considering all the transitional work that needs to take place in preperation for FH, and the potential for false starts or growing pains at LC40 before the rebuilt pad hits its stride, it may well be until September before a 2 week cadence gets going again.

Meaning a target of 20+ launches for the year suddenly seems far less likely than it did a few days ago, fresh after 9 launches in 6 months.
It's a three week maintenance lull at the range. With SpaceX's obvious determination to launch just before the start of the window, and plenty of time to align a launch for just after the end of the window, a hiccup of one week in their two week cadence seems the most likely result.

But we'll see.

Offline woods170

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #313 on: 07/01/2017 01:57 pm »
Will any FH/Crew Dragon work be done during the range outage, or just continued RSS demolition?
From what I'm hearing continued RSS demolition work as well as CAA install prep work.

Offline Eerie

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #314 on: 07/01/2017 03:23 pm »
So why the interest now?  Just because LC-39 has the smell of musk on it now?

You mean the musk of musk?

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #315 on: 07/04/2017 06:23 am »
Not sure where to post this ...

Quote
No joke: @SpaceX experimenting with lighting pad 39A red, white and blue. Colors shifting as (I assume) they test. Working on a photo.
https://twitter.com/emrekelly/status/882072041188413440

Quote
Also saw the red, white and blue lighting after the static fire last week.
https://twitter.com/stephenclark1/status/882074148293496832

Quote
As promised, a photo of @SpaceX lighting up pad 39A red, white and blue. Not much blue here, but it's been shifting for a white.
https://twitter.com/emrekelly/status/882086800751304704

Offline cscott

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #316 on: 07/04/2017 12:15 pm »
If they are using colored filters, the "shifting to white" may be the filter burning through or cracking under the heat load.  Might take some experimentation to get (presumably dichroic) filters that can stand up to the immense lights at LC39A.

Offline Ronsmytheiii

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #317 on: 07/12/2017 05:44 pm »
Will any FH/Crew Dragon work be done during the range outage, or just continued RSS demolition?
From what I'm hearing continued RSS demolition work as well as CAA install prep work.

Some initial images to show the status of the RSS from yesterday, not much left of the PCR:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWbGzUQBvHa/
And
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWbKiK5hAPm/

Respectively


Offline Confusador

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #318 on: 07/12/2017 06:30 pm »
For comparison from two weeks ago.  They're definitely making good use of the time, will be interesting to see as it progresses.

Offline Prettz

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Re: Pad 39A - Transition to SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut - Thread 3
« Reply #319 on: 07/12/2017 08:55 pm »
Some initial images to show the status of the RSS from yesterday, not much left of the PCR:
And the PCR is what?

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