Author Topic: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle  (Read 127737 times)

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #80 on: 06/16/2011 06:45 pm »
Very well, let's finish off the GOX Arm, ok?

GOX Arm Vent Hood (Beanie Cap) lift.

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #81 on: 06/16/2011 07:03 pm »
RSS Anteroom Extension installation.

They eventually decided that the room you enter the PCR through was too small, and so they ran framing all along the back side of the RSS and made the whole area the new RSS Anteroom. Whereas before, there was hardly enough room for a desk with someone sitting behind it to check your credentials and let you open the door and walk into the air shower, now they had themselves a capacious volume that could accommodate numerous people and a variety of paraphernalia. This occurred after the pad had become active over at A, but before the pad became active on B. When I had my misadventure with the live payload stack over at A Pad, we’d entered through the old, small and cramped, anteroom. We departed, needless to say, through the emergency exit doors, skipping the anteroom in our haste to get the hell out of there.

Here in these photos, you see a gang of ironworkers doing their thing, as nonchalantly as you or I might get up out of a chair and walk into the kitchen to get something out of the refrigerator. There’s nothing at all beneath the beams and columns these guys are putting into place and walking around on. Sheer drop to the pad deck.

In the top right photo, you can see Gene Lockamy (I sure hope I’m spelling your last name right, Gene) directing the crane operator with hand signals, while a pair of ironworkers employ a spud wrench to force the column they are setting to properly line up with the bolt holes in the piece it sits on top of.

This is how the iron gets hung.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 09:45 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #82 on: 06/16/2011 07:27 pm »
RSS Anteroom Extension installation.

More views of this iron getting hung.

In the top right image, an ironworker gets from here to there across a steel beam.

In the bottom right image, looking straight down from above, you get a pretty good look at what our ironworker, in the shot above, is walking across. A couple of men can be seen in this image, walking high steel, and a look at the gentleman on the left gives a fair impression of just how narrow those beams are (although these guys would probably call beams like this a “sidewalk” and routinely walk much narrower pieces than these).

Top left image is unrelated to the Anteroom job. You are looking directly up toward the hook of the 90 ton hoist, which is directly above the platforms of the RCS Room, from the ground, exactly straight down underneath it. A different perspective that you don’t see very often, of the RSS.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 09:46 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #83 on: 06/16/2011 07:40 pm »
Mixed images.

Top left: LOX Tank water spray test.

Right, top and bottom: Hanging the LH2 Flare Stack.

Bottom left: Unknown and Steve Parker.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 07:40 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #84 on: 06/16/2011 07:45 pm »
By the way, I may as well stop here and ask that if there's anybody out there who was either directly involved, or knows anyone who was a member of Ironworker's Local 808 out of Central Florida back in the early 80's, who may be able to give some names to any of the unknowns in these pictures, I'm pretty sure that not only would I be happy to include the additional information, but also the people themselves, and/or their family members would be even more happy.

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #85 on: 06/16/2011 07:47 pm »
Left: FSS panorama, viewed from the north. Note that the RSS is still up on its supporting falsework.

Right: RCS Room framing panorama, viewed from the FSS.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 07:48 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #86 on: 06/16/2011 07:55 pm »
Top: Danny Sheffield, in the Sheffield Steel field trailer. Danny was the owner’s son. I do not know what became of Sheffield Steel (other than it no longer exists), nor do I know what became of Danny. He was good people.

Middle: Skip box, beside the Flame Trench.  Need to take a quick look at something up on the tower that’s a little hard to get to? No problem. Hook this thing to the crane, get in, and take yourself a little ride. It was always fun to ride in the skip box, but looking at this thing now, I’m guessing that the safety people would throw everyone in jail for using it. And never forget, boys and girls, it’s the Safety Man who will kill you.

 Also, in the background, you can get a fairly good look at both Side Flame Deflectors.  They were moved into and out of position on a set of rails that ran right down the edge of the Flame Trench on both sides, and in this shot, the near one is the launch position, and the other is retracted position, to the north.

Bottom: What I’d see if I decided to stop on the way to work and check the surf. I missed a lot of waves while working out at the pad, and in Florida, waves are a rare and precious commodity.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 08:02 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #87 on: 06/16/2011 08:09 pm »
Left: Predawn.

Top right: RSS Falsework, viewed from the foot of the FSS, looking toward the southwest with the RSS in the demate position, which is where it was built.

Bottom right: Column Line 7 stair tower, from a little ways down on the pad slope, looking more or less directly back in the opposite direction as the above photo. The RSS primary structure had seven column lines with the Hinge Column as line 1, and the far side, where the drive trucks would be located, being line 7. Column Lines A, B, and C, I think, ran from the back of the RSS forward, toward where the orbiter would be sitting. Later, as they encrusted more and more stuff onto the RSS, I think (again with the think business, ahh…fallible memory) they added a few more column line designations. You would find your way around on the structure, and/or locate things on drawings and paperwork, via the alphanumeric column line designations along with an elevation.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 08:12 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #88 on: 06/16/2011 08:24 pm »
Top: Eugene Hajdaj (pronounced Hay Jay), one of the best human beings I’ve ever encountered in my life. Hanging out at the Sheffield Steel field trailer.

Middle: Mom & Dad.

Bottom: Me at the Sheffield Steel field trailer.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 08:25 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #89 on: 06/16/2011 08:32 pm »
Top left: My son.

Right: What I believe to be the two earliest photographs I took of the RSS. The bottom truss was laid down upon the falsework, and then very large structural pipe weldments were then welded down and added onto, piece by very large piece. Of interest, in the bottom right photo, please notice that the diagonals going down toward the 135 level truss at column line 7 do not actually connect at their lower ends. When the vertical members of line 7 arrived, they would have “stub clusters” that would butt up against the existing pipe framing which would then be full-penetration welded to the existing steel. Those stub clusters were a certified nightmare to cut, fit, and weld. This was pre-computer, and it was all done by hand. It’s hard to even imagine the trickiness that’s involved where six or eight separate cylindrical structural pipes all come together. And in at least one case, things weren’t done quite right on the shop floor, and slipped past the QC inspection, and were only discovered to be bad when they failed to mate with the adjacent pipe framing, up in the air, on the tower. And as a result, we were serenaded by the Infamous Wilhoit Air-arc down in the field trailer, as the ironworkers removed the offending stub, and had to weld on a new one. I’ll never forget that sound as long as I live. Lotta time and money down a hole with that kind of thing.

Bottom left: Me under the RSS, with Column Line 7 in the background. The interestingness with this shot revolves around the little yellow drive cab behind me. The RSS is driven around on its track between the mate and demate positions. Somebody sits inside of that cab, and drives the RSS. The truly psychotic thing about it is that the seat they sit on HAS A SEATBELT. What were they thinking when they spec’ed out that?!? Here’s this gillion-pound steel structure that moves at less than a walking speed, on a rail, and they decided to put a seatbelt on the seat? How, exactly, is that going to make anything in the world safer? Were they expecting the RSS to suddenly lurch forward at sixty miles per hour and wind up in a ditch somewhere? Did they think that if the whole thing fell down that the seatbelt would keep its wearer safe?  Personally, I think it’s because they wanted the driver to go down with the ship if anything ever happened. “Yeah, we’ll tie him in there. He’ll never get out in time. That’ll serve him right.”
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 09:54 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #90 on: 06/16/2011 09:09 pm »
FSS/RSS panorama from across the Flame Trench.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 09:09 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #91 on: 06/16/2011 09:17 pm »
Left: North end of Flame Trench pad deck panorama.

Lotta stuff going on in this panorama. Across the way is the 9099 Building, which sits just north of the FSS. Beyond that, is the west end of the North Piping Bridge (nasty story about getting shafted by NASA with that thing, but not now). Directly in front of you, in the middle of the picture, is one of the access stair towers for the MLP. Struts for one of the MLP Support Pedestals can be seen partially blocked behind it. And on the far right is the east end of the North Piping Bridge and the stair tower that accesses it.

Right: My little yellow VW beetle. The story here is that I drove the RSS Hurricane Locks up to the pad deck in this car. They almost went through the floor of the car when I put ‘em in there. Look close, and you can see a couple of the locks already installed next to the rail, peeking out above and left of my left rear fender. They’re kind of a dead gray color. The gang of ironworkers is getting ready to weld the new locks I just delivered, into place. I believe the ironworker dressed in brown, facing away from the camera is Elmo McBee, and the shorter ironworker facing the camera (but looking down to his right at the work) is Ray Elkins. Both of these guys took pity on me for being the greenhorn that I was, and were careful at all times to ensure that I understood what was going on, and, even more importantly, to ensure that I did not kill either myself, or anyone else, as I blundered around on the launch pad. Thanks guys, it was, and is, appreciated.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 09:26 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #92 on: 06/16/2011 09:36 pm »
RSS, First Rotation.

This was a Big Deal. First time that the Rotating Service Structure was actually set into motion and rotated. When dealing with mobile objects of this size and weight, you really REALLY do not want anything to go wrong. So the first time you roll, there’s a lot on the line. I snapped these shots from in front of the Sheffield field trailer.

I had wanted to go up on the pad deck to get a look at things from close range, but my boss was up there, and somebody had to stay back in the trailer and man the phones, and that somebody was me. Turned out to be a lucky thing. Otherwise, I would not have gotten this sequence of photographs of the rotation.

A friend of mine took a quarter, dime, and penny I gave him, and placed them on the rail, one on top of the other. The RSS smashed the stack flat, all smeared out of shape and with each coin’s impression embedded into each other. It was my thirty-six cent sandwich. Somehow, along the intervening years, I managed to lose it somewhere. But it was fun to show people while I still had it.

Everything worked fine with the rotation, just like it was supposed to.
« Last Edit: 06/16/2011 11:18 pm by 39B »

Offline 39B

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #93 on: 06/16/2011 09:43 pm »
Ok then, enough for now. More later.

Offline Jose

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #94 on: 06/16/2011 10:55 pm »
...You don't want to be under something when they lose it. It's not good for your complexion.

Haha, I bet. Ruin your whole day.


Offline dougforest

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #95 on: 07/05/2011 06:20 pm »
Hi 39B,

I just joined this forum and thought that I'd introduce myself.

I've been interested in space flight, since the days of watching the moon landings, live on TV. Over the years, I've collected a fair collection of books and models on the subject. I was one of the founding members of the team that tried to save the last Apollo Saturn V LUT, between 2001 and 2004, which occurred after I wrote a paper for the British Interplanetary Society's magazine: SpaceFlight. In it, I recorded a previous preservation attempt on the tower, when the Space Shuttle program was getting started. For more information on that, you can still see the website that was set up for the campaign: www.savethelut.com

I enjoyed looking at your photos of the pads. It's great to see some of the more candid shots from the period. I'm always on the lookout to find ones that I haven't seen before, but I did notice that they are showing quite a color cast. Is that just the scan, or is that the way the prints are?

If you still have the negatives, or if they were originally slides and you're interested in preserving them, I can help you, or indeed anyone on the group that has film photographs that they'd like to keep as new.

As a sideline, I operate a scanning business from my home in Los Angeles - www.photoreplicate.com - which allows me to produce very high resolution scans. I am able to correct the color casts and contrast levels to bring the photographs back to life.

Have a look at my website and see if it's something that would interest you. My contact information is on the PhotoReplicate website.

At the very least, keep the photos like this coming:)

Regards to all,

Doug Forrest

Offline dantdbv

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #96 on: 07/11/2011 04:16 pm »
I have to thank you 39B, not only for these exciting pictures, but also for having allowed me to get a breakthrough, that did not expect to get.

I am talking about your pictures of the premodification Sound Suppression Water System pipes. Your pictures has made it possible for me to ask the questiens i have posted here:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=14430.msg772224#msg772224

Should you know any of the answers or know someone who does and could point them in my direction, then i would be very gratefull.

I very much appreciate the look into the past, you have offered us and i am eagerly awaiting your next instalments. It is people like you who makes this place as good as it is.

Respectfully yours
DanTDBV
DanTDBV (The Droid Building Viking)
Dan Nielsen
Frederikssund
Denmark

Offline TFGQ

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #97 on: 07/11/2011 08:13 pm »
Ok 39-B thank u very much for your sevice and for the record you were my favorite Launch Pad
Life is a magical thing -- Laurel Clark

Offline dvsmith

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #98 on: 07/10/2012 04:02 am »
Ok then, enough for now. More later.

39B, are you still around?

I love this thread and would love to see more.

Offline robertross

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Re: Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos - Space Shuttle
« Reply #99 on: 07/20/2012 04:09 pm »
There isn't a 39-A thread that I could see, but I thought this might interest people. I just received it via e-mail from KSC-VC:

Quote
For the first time in 50 years, NASA is opening its gates to public visitors to tour the main launch pad. The new KSC Up-Close: Launch Pad Tour, the latest to open of the three special behind-the-scenes tours, takes visitors from Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to the inside of Launch Pad 39-A, the location of space shuttle and Apollo Saturn V moon rocket launches.

The tour travels nearly a quarter-mile within the perimeter security fence of Launch Pad 39-A. Visitors can enjoy close views of the 350-foot-high fixed service structure, rotating service structure, propellant storage containers, water tanks, flame trench and other aspects of the launch pad complex. The highlight of the tour is the photo opportunity during the stop at the pad. The tour also includes drive-by views of Launch Pad 39-B, the Vehicle Assembly Building, mobile launch platforms and culminates at the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

This tour is offered for a limited time only!


Also:
Quote
See Atlantis Up-Close!
Celebrate the "Year of Atlantis" with a firsthand look of the orbiter.
For a limited time, visitors who take the special behind-the-scenes tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) have an opportunity to get an up-close view of space shuttle Atlantis. On November 2, space shuttle Atlantis rolls over to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as part of the "Atlantis Homecoming: The Celebration." Click here for more information. 

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