Launch on Need by Daniel Guiteras (small books to read txt) 📗

a few days ago. As you can see, there is a slit in the doorway that allows the orbiter’s vertical stabilizer to pass through.

“As our pilot pulls up to the top of the VAB, you begin to get a sense of how tall the building is. But without similar-sized buildings around the VAB, and the Atlantic coastline about a mile or so away, it’s difficult to appreciate the building’s true size. The VAB is five-hundred-and-twenty-five feet tall. That’s nearly two-hundred-and-twenty feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. It was originally designed and built for the huge Saturn-Five rockets of the Apollo program—the rockets astronauts rode to the moon. Before the first shuttle launch in 1981, the VAB was modified to accommodate the shuttle’s unique size and shape.”

The pilot pulled back on his stick, allowing the cameraman to get a wider shot, then pushed forward to the west side of the building.

“The flag you see painted here on the west wall of the building,” Stangley said, pointing with his left hand, “is likely the largest American flag you’ve ever seen, at one-hundred-and-ten feet wide by over two-hundred-feet long.” The pilot flew so that the entire flag could be seen through the windshield. The camera shot included Stangley’s left shoulder and arm as he pointed out the windshield at the flag. In the foreground the pilot could be seen making small adjustments to the stick as he hovered. The sun was low in the sky, and the helicopter’s shadow was cast against the pink hued exterior of the building.

“I’m told that it took six-thousand gallons of paint to create this image of the American flag, and that the stripes are as wide as a full-sized tour bus. The smaller buildings in the foreground are referred to as the low-bay area. Here on the west side of the VAB is where technicians perform maintenance and overhaul work on the space shuttle’s main engines.” The pilot descended and dipped forward slightly to allow the cameraman a better shot of the low-bay area.

Stangley looked into the camera. “Now before we look at the south aspect of the VAB, I want to show you something.” He briefly turned to the pilot and spoke inaudibly. Immediately, the pilot climbed to a thousand feet and then slowly headed out to the coast.

Stangley pointed toward the ground below and raised his voice so he could be heard clearly over the engine noise. “This road you see below is the road Atlantis will take to get out to the launch pad. The road extends from the south side of the VAB all the way out to the launch pad.” The pilot flew out just over the breaking surf, circled around the launch pad and then headed back to the VAB, following the crawler-transporter roadway.

“As we return to the VAB, you can see the brown doors similar to those on the north side of the building. Atlantis entered the building from the north, but will exit from the south side. Once Atlantis is ready—that is, after she’s been mated to the External Tank and the Solid Rocket Boosters—the crawler-transporter will enter the VAB, pick up the Mobile Launch Platform, and slowly roll the shuttle out to the launch pad.

“NASA officials say that if all goes well, the shuttle will roll out to the launch pad on Thursday of this week, just two days from now.”

The helicopter pilot veered off to the landing pad while Stangley explained what was coming next. “Now that we’ve seen the VAB from the outside, it’s time to head inside to see the workers who are preparing Atlantis for the rescue. We’ll get a chance to see Atlantis up close, see the Mobile Launch Platform, and the huge cranes that make the mating process possible—all that,” Stangley said, opening the door of the helicopter and stepping out onto the tarmac, “when we return.”

After a second commercial break, Stangley continued.

“Welcome back,” Stangley said while holding a microphone and turning to face the camera that was following him. “As I’ve said before, this building is really huge.” Stangley stopped walking to allow the cameraman to pan up towards the top of the VAB. “Even though I’ve been inside over a dozen times, each time I come here I’m amazed all over again. Today though, we’ll have a special view because we’ll get to see Atlantis as she’s being prepared for the rescue mission. Let’s go inside.”

Stangley and his small production crew entered the VAB and were immediately greeted by NASA staff and bright-yellow hard-hats.

“Now obviously the crews inside the VAB are extremely busy,” Stangley said. The reverence he felt was plainly evident in the way his voice changed upon entering the vast structure. “Let’s not forget that when Atlantis arrived from the Orbiter Processing Facility yesterday, she was seven hours behind schedule. So not only are the workers wrestling with an already rushed schedule dictated by the Columbia rescue parameters, they now have to shave an additional seven hours off the process.

“Right now, we’re standing in what NASA calls the VAB transfer aisle. Atlantis entered the VAB in a horizontal position, but as you can see, cranes have lifted Atlantis into a vertical position so she can be attached to the External Tank.” The cameraman focused in on the word “Atlantis” near the trailing edge of the orbiter’s right wing, then pulled back and up to show the cranes holding Atlantis in place.

“There are a total of seventy-one cranes in the VAB. Two of the cranes, called bridge cranes, are capable of lifting two-hundred-and-fifty tons. The various orbiter dry-weights differ, with Columbia being the heaviest; but figure an orbiter weighs between eighty-two and ninety tons empty. Obviously, the bridge cranes can easily lift an orbiter into place.

“Now, before Atlantis arrived, the orange External Fuel Tank, or ‘ET,’ and the two Solid Rocket Boosters you see behind me also were lifted into the vertical position and lowered onto the Mobile Launch Platform. That task had already been completed, even before