Jump to content
IGNORED

Space Shuttle Processing: Rarely seen by the general public

E30TECH

By E30TECH
in Riders Discuss Other Topics

Recommended Posts

Firefight911

Firefight911

Posted
Posted
Slide15.jpg

 

There is a great caption to this one just waiting to be told!!!! lmao.giflmao.giflmao.gif

 

Mmmmm, ya, the button on the right, DO NOT PUSH THE RED BUTTON!!! Damn it Fred, I said DO NOT PUSH THE RE. . . . . . . . . .

 

To those in the know, they recover the external rocket boosters, right? What is involved in their rework/reuse? Any pics of them being recovered anywhere?

Link to comment
E30TECH

E30TECH

Posted
  • Author
Posted

yes the SRBs are recovered. I build and recondition hardware for the SRBs and the SSME. I have parts on the ISS too thumbsup.gif

 

SRBs.jpg

Link to comment
Joel

Joel

Posted
Posted

Nice! cool.gif

 

Puts things into perspective: I was sitting here pondering <400 sf in additions to our prospective soon-to-be new-to-us home and then I see that tank and I imagine a budget bigger than some countries' GDP, then I wonder what I was getting so frazzled over. smirk.gif

Link to comment
Francois_Dumas

Francois_Dumas

Posted
Posted

Awesome pictures. Very interesting to see all the work and huge facilities needed for a launch. Many thanks. thumbsup.gifthumbsup.gifthumbsup.gif

Link to comment
allikanbe

allikanbe

Posted
Posted
Slide15.jpg

 

There is a great caption to this one just waiting to be told!!!! lmao.giflmao.giflmao.gif

 

Mmmmm, ya, the button on the right, DO NOT PUSH THE RED BUTTON!!! Damn it Fred, I said DO NOT PUSH THE RE. . . . . . . . . .

 

To those in the know, they recover the external rocket boosters, right? What is involved in their rework/reuse? Any pics of them being recovered anywhere?

 

Caption: Hang up and Drive!

Link to comment
Matts_12GS

Matts_12GS

Posted
Posted

Definitely great stuff. My dad was a reliability engineer on the SSMEC block I and II stuff in the way back. I love these things!

Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday

Joe Frickin' Friday

Posted
Posted
To those in the know, they recover the external rocket boosters, right? What is involved in their rework/reuse? Any pics of them being recovered anywhere?

 

One of my favorite resources:

 

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Space Shuttle But Were Afraid to Ask

 

The info there might be a bit dated (like 20 years tongue.gif), but gives you some idea of the complexity of the machine's construction, operation, and support requirements.

Link to comment
RonStewart

RonStewart

Posted
Posted

Smoky wrote:

Damn! That is so great. Someday I will watch one of those launch.

 

It's high on my bucket-list.

Well, Smoky, you'd best get a move on. The program is scheduled to end in 2010. tongue.gif
Link to comment
E30TECH

E30TECH

Posted
  • Author
Posted
The program is scheduled to end in 2010. tongue.gif

Good news. Oops - political comment... wave.gif

 

To clarify - the SHUTTLE program scheduled to end by 2010 - they are designing a new launch vehicle. It is going to be more like the Apollo days.

 

Glad you guys enjoyed the pics. They were sent to me from my friends at KSC.

Link to comment
Rider1200RT

Rider1200RT

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the pics. thumbsup.gif I had no idea how involved a pre launch assembly was. A friend of mine is a tile engineer for the shuttle and told me about what they do. Simply amazing!!

Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday

Joe Frickin' Friday

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the pics. thumbsup.gif I had no idea how involved a pre launch assembly was. A friend of mine is a tile engineer for the shuttle and told me about what they do. Simply amazing!!

 

Back in the mid '90's the Discovery Channel ran a 2-hour documentary on the space shuttle. The show started with a landing, and the next two hours were spent following an orbiter all the way through processing to a launch-ready condition. It was fascinating to get a glimpse of all the work that took place. You already have some idea of the tile inspection that goes on, but pretty damn near every other part gets similar scrutiny. From what I remember, there is a crew of workers who inspect the windshield panes for micro-meteoroid impacts; they mark each one they find with a little sticker, and if they find any over a certain size the window pane has to get replaced. Otherwise, the next crew comes in and hand polishes the bejeezus out of the window panes to remove those small pock marks. Main engines? same sort of scrutiny. solid rocket boosters? Taken apart, inspected, and new solid fuel gets cast into each segment before they get reassembled. Everything gets double-checked to make sure nobody screwed up.

 

At the end of the two-hour show, you begin to understand why it costs so much to launch a reusable spacecraft. crazy.gif

Link to comment
Ben_Ricci

Ben_Ricci

Posted
Posted

Thanks for sharing. Well done with superb pics. I've heard this process described on the radio, but seeing adds another dimension. What an incredible project. Excellent post.

Link to comment
tallman

tallman

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the great pics.

Many years ago had a friend who was involved in the design o the doors for the assembly building.

 

Kind of interesting though, in 2006 we were coming through Customs at Campabello, truly a one horse operation and not a hot zone for terrorist activity, and one of our group was pulled aside to be searched.

I took a photo of the agent searching his motorcycle.

Immediately I was confronted by a screaming agent who rushed up to my bike, demanded my camera for confiscation whilst berating me about not knowing of 9/11 2001 in a voice loud enough to be heard a mile away.

Apparently I had breached US security protocols and my image would reveal to terrorists the methods used by Customs to search a motorcycle and would therefore allow the destruction of the world as we know it by BMW riding terrorists who would circumvent the search procedure. smirk.gif

Glad your friends weren't going thru Customs as the pics are cool.

Link to comment
USAF1

USAF1

Posted
Posted

One of my biggest wishes is that one day I can afford to send my mother down to watch a "Lift Off" (w/o ANY delays)

I saw one from Daytona Beach back in '91/'92.....most awesome thing you can ever see!! Thanks for posting all these!

 

Pat

Link to comment
160bits

160bits

Posted
Posted
How in the heck can this post from March 28, 2008 have over 13,000 views???????????????????

 

Thanks to adamx who discovered it and posted on stumbleupon.

Link to comment
jb2386

jb2386

Posted
Posted
How in the heck can this post from March 28, 2008 have over 13,000 views???????????????????

 

confused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gifconfused.gif

 

StumbleUpon.com cool.gif

 

Thanks for the post by the way, it was really cool!

Link to comment
E30TECH

E30TECH

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I'm glad to see that many people are enjoying the post. How did you find out it was linked to stumbleupon? I never heard of that site before.

Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday

Joe Frickin' Friday

Posted
Posted
How in the heck can this post from March 28, 2008 have over 13,000 views???????????????????

 

In the 8 hours since your post, it's now gone up over 25,000 views... eek.gif

Link to comment
160bits

160bits

Posted
Posted
I'm glad to see that many people are enjoying the post. How did you find out it was linked to stumbleupon? I never heard of that site before.

 

Stumbleupon suggests what you might like based on what others with same interest seemed to like. It's a nice tool that brings me to places I would never find on my own. (like this one)

Link to comment
Jerry Johnston

Jerry Johnston

Posted
Posted

Loved the pictures Perry. Do you mind if I send copies of the pictures to a freind ?

Thanks

Link to comment
E30TECH

E30TECH

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Loved the pictures Perry. Do you mind if I send copies of the pictures to a freind ?

Thanks

 

Not at all. Thanks for asking. I posted the pics as I get to see these pictures quite often as I build hardware for the shuttle and space station.

 

For those that have emailed me from the other sites that linked to this post, I appreciate the 'thanks' given. I do work for EADS also.

 

Thanks for the info about the stumbleupon linking. I never saw anything like that.

 

I must say I am shocked by the view counter. I hope that Leslie and Jamie don't mind blush.gif

Link to comment
ESokoloff

ESokoloff

Posted
Posted
Stumbleupon suggests what you might like based on what others with same interest seemed to like. It's a nice tool that brings me to places I would never find on my own. (like this one)

 

It will be interesting to see if we get a surge of new members in the next few days/weeks smile.gif

Link to comment
NeilFraser

NeilFraser

Posted
Posted

Nice set of pictures. Here's a bunch of corrections:

[*]"Solid Rockets Are Attached". Actually it's the other way around. The SRBs are the very first thing that are stacked on the MLP. The ET is dropped between the fully stacked (and fueled!) SRBs.

[*]"Engines are Attached to Solids". No, the SRBs are fully assembled long before the ET reaches Florida. See here: http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_031118.html

[*]"Engines are Attached to the Shuttle in the Shuttle Processing Facility". Actually it's called the "Orbiter Processing Facility".

[*]"New Module for ISS". Actually that's the Leonardo MPLM which is not new. It has been to ISS many times before. It's just a packing container that is brought back and forth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Purpose_Logistics_Module

[*]"Payload Ready to be moved to the Launch Pad". Nope, that's the shuttle at the launch pad. See the yellow ribs on the outside of the doors? Those are the strongbacks attached to the payload bay doors to prevent them from warping. This photo (and the following one) should be moved way down the page.

[*]The untitled photo of the shuttle next to the sunset is also out of sequence, it is on the crawler nowhere near the launch pad. Needs to be moved three photos up. In its place should be the earlier two payload photos showing the yellow strongbacks.

Link to comment
E30TECH

E30TECH

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Nice set of pictures. Here's a bunch of corrections:

[*]"Solid Rockets Are Attached". Actually it's the other way around. The SRBs are the very first thing that are stacked on the MLP. The ET is dropped between the fully stacked (and fueled!) SRBs.

[*]"Engines are Attached to Solids". No, the SRBs are fully assembled long before the ET reaches Florida. See here: http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_031118.html

[*]"Engines are Attached to the Shuttle in the Shuttle Processing Facility". Actually it's called the "Orbiter Processing Facility".

[*]"New Module for ISS". Actually that's the Leonardo MPLM which is not new. It has been to ISS many times before. It's just a packing container that is brought back and forth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Purpose_Logistics_Module

[*]"Payload Ready to be moved to the Launch Pad". Nope, that's the shuttle at the launch pad. See the yellow ribs on the outside of the doors? Those are the strongbacks attached to the payload bay doors to prevent them from warping. This photo (and the following one) should be moved way down the page.

[*]The untitled photo of the shuttle next to the sunset is also out of sequence, it is on the crawler nowhere near the launch pad. Needs to be moved three photos up. In its place should be the earlier two payload photos showing the yellow strongbacks.

 

I'll send your comments to the folks at KSC since they are the people sent me a .pps file, and I put the individual pictures here for others to see.

 

If you want to post your email addy, I'll forward you their comments thumbsup.gif

 

 

out of 57K views, there is bound to be one wink.gif

Link to comment
NeilFraser

NeilFraser

Posted
Posted
If you want to post your email addy, I'll forward you their comments thumbsup.gif

 

Sure: neil.fraser@gmail.com

 

out of 57K views, there is bound to be one wink.gif

 

Yes, I'm a space geek. cool.gif

 

Of course if you like the American Space Shuttle, you'll love the Soviet Buran. More advanced, cheaper, more reliable. But after one flight they realized it was not cost effective and canceled it.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0153.shtml

Link to comment
E30TECH

E30TECH

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Someone from Germany emailed me today and told me it was on that site. i never heard of that one either!

 

I wonder if this is the most viewed thread to date? I'm thinking 100K by 5pm eastern time

Link to comment
ESokoloff

ESokoloff

Posted
Posted

I wonder if this is the most viewed thread to date?

 

Congrats on a job well done thumbsup.gif

 

I'm impressed.....

 

that the bmwst.com equipment/service is capable of supporting this much activity.

Link to comment
russell_bynum

russell_bynum

Posted
Posted

I wonder if this is the most viewed thread to date?

 

Congrats on a job well done thumbsup.gif

 

I'm impressed.....

 

that the bmwst.com equipment/service is capable of supporting this much activity.

 

The shuttle images are all hosted elsewhere, so there's really not that much load for us.

Link to comment
former_thiokal_employee

former_thiokal_employee

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the pictures even if the sequence of events was incorrect(?). Being a former Contract Designer at Thiokal, it was interesting to me. No, I didn't design the infamous gaskets and yes, the temperature was under the operating one when the ill-fated shuttle launched.

Still, pictures are great. Thanks again thumbsup.gif

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...