{"id":13627,"date":"2018-08-27T19:36:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T11:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/sls-mobile-launch-platform-to-go-on-the-move-this-week\/"},"modified":"2018-08-27T19:36:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T11:36:48","slug":"sls-mobile-launch-platform-to-go-on-the-move-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/sls-mobile-launch-platform-to-go-on-the-move-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"SLS mobile launch platform to go on the move this week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The Space Launch System\u2019s mobile launch platform is pictured with a crawler-transporter during a lift procedure earlier this year. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mobile platform intended to carry NASA\u2019s Space Launch System will trek to the mega-rocket\u2019s launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as Thursday, before heading inside the spaceport\u2019s huge Vehicle Assembly Building for the first time next month.<\/p>\n

Spaceflight Now members can watch live video of the mobile launch platform\u2019s move to the pad.<\/p>\n

Workers at the Florida launch base have installed more than a half-dozen retractable arms, umbilical connections and support masts on the mobile launcher over the past 18 months, following a lengthy process to redesign the tower\u2019s base to accommodate the heavy-lifting Space Launch System.<\/p>\n

Originally built for NASA\u2019s Ares 1 rocket, a single-booster launcher which never flew on an orbital mission before its cancellation in 2010, the mobile launch platform stands nearly 400 feet tall and weighs approximately 10.5 million pounds. After the Ares 1 rocket was canceled with NASA\u2019s Constellation moon program in 2010, NASA decided to modify the structure for the more powerful Space Launch System, which replaced the Ares rocket family as the launch vehicle for the space agency\u2019s ambitions for the human exploration of deep space.<\/p>\n

The SLS will tower more than 30 stories tall, and will become the most powerful launcher in the world once it debuts. Its primary use will be to launch NASA\u2019s Orion crew capsule, a four-person craft that will take astronauts to the vicinity of the moon, where NASA intends to construct a mini-space station in a high-altitude lunar orbit.<\/p>\n

One of NASA\u2019s heavy-duty crawler-transporters, a holdover from the Apollo moon program, will lift the mobile launch platform and transfer it from a park site just north of the space center\u2019s Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39B, the seaside facility where SLS missions will take off, beginning with the mega-rocket\u2019s oft-delayed inaugural test flight in mid-2020 on an uncrewed launch.<\/p>\n

Unlike the space shuttle\u2019s decommissioned launch platforms, the SLS launch table includes a fixed tower complete with an elevator and connections to route propellants, purges, power and other commodities between the launch vehicle and ground supplies.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Crew Access Arm for the Orion capsule was added to the SLS mobile launch platform earlier this year, then extended and retracted for functional testing. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The diesel-powered transporter will move the mobile launcher along the rock-covered crawlerway originally built in the 1960s for NASA\u2019s Saturn 5 moon rocket, then used for 30 years during the space shuttle program.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s crawler-transporter team has practiced for the move in recent weeks by transferring a shuttle-era platform up and down the crawlerway.<\/p>\n

Bill Hill, NASA\u2019s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, said Monday that the SLS platform\u2019s journey is expected to begin around midday Thursday, likely followed by an overnight stop somewhere along the crawlerway before the trip to pad 39B concludes Friday.<\/p>\n

The mobile launcher\u2019s rollout to pad 39B will mark the structure\u2019s second visit to the launch complex, following a brief trip in late 2011. But that visit occurred with the platform still in its Ares 1 configuration, and this week\u2019s trip will be the first time the platform has trekked to pad 39B with its full complement of umbilicals, plumbing, and other equipment necessary for the SLS.<\/p>\n

The platform is scheduled to roll back toward the Vehicle Assembly Building around Sept. 7, followed by an employee and media event at the spaceport, before the mobile launcher rolls into High Bay 3 of the cavernous assembly building around Sept. 8, according to Hill.<\/p>\n

That will be the first time the platform will enter the VAB.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to go to the pad first,\u201d Hill said Monday in a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council\u2019s human exploration nd operations committee. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do fit checks, and then if we find anything we need to fix while we\u2019re in the VAB, we\u2019ll have time to fix those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work at the mobile launcher\u2019s park site near the VAB over the last year-and-a-half has centered on lifting and attaching swing arms and umbilical connectors up and down the tower. The attachments included the addition of the crew access arm, a vehicle stabilizer, fueling and purge lines for the SLS and Orion spacecraft, and two large Tail Service Masts at the base of the platform to route cryogenic propellants into the SLS core stage.<\/p>\n

See NASA\u2019s fact sheet on the mobile launcher\u2019s umbilical arms.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Space Launch System\u2019s mobile launch platform sits outside the Vehicle Assembly Building earlier this month, with its full complement of swing arms. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once the mobile launch platform is inside the VAB, workers will commence an exhaustive multi-month verification and validation campaign to ensure the tower is ready to support stacking and liftoffs of the Space Launch System. The testing will include swinging the umbilical arms as they will move in the final minutes and seconds of an SLS countdown, according to a NASA spokesperson.<\/p>\n

One swing arm that cannot be fully moved inside the VAB high bay is the crew access arm, which astronauts will use to board the Orion capsule flying atop the Space Launch System. Workers at the mobile launcher\u2019s park site north of the VAB completed outdoor testing of the crew access arm earlier this month after its installation on the tower\u2019s 274-foot-level in February.<\/p>\n

Other test objectives inside the VAB include testing of the mobile launcher\u2019s ground special power, launch release and thermal control subsystems, a NASA spokesperson said in response to questions from Spaceflight Now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, final (mobile launcher) construction work will be completed which will include structural work,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, NASA has outfitted High Bay 3 \u2014 one of four VAB rocket assembly bays \u2014 with new work platforms designed for the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n

The mobile launcher\u2019s test campaign inside the VAB should be completed by the third quarter of 2019, Hill said.<\/p>\n

The platform will then head back to pad 39B for more extensive testing there, before returning to the VAB for the start of stacking of the first Space Launch System.<\/p>\n

Cranes will first stack the launcher\u2019s twin five-segment solid rocket boosters \u2014 manufactured by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems \u2014 followed by the lowering of the Space Launch System\u2019s huge Boeing-built 27.6-foot-diameter (8.4-meter) hydrogen-fueled core stage between the solid-fueled motors. The core stage will be powered by four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 main engines, uprated powerplants left over from the shuttle program.<\/p>\n

Then ground crews will carefully lower the SLS second stage, derived from the upper stage flown on United Launch Alliance\u2019s Delta 4 rocket, over the core stage. Finally, the Orion crew capsule will be added to the rocket, including the spacecraft\u2019s pointy-shaped launch abort motor.<\/p>\n

NASA calls that specific version of the rocket the \u201cBlock 1\u201d configuration of the Space Launch System.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Artist\u2019s concept of the Space Launch System in its \u201cBlock 1\u201d configuration. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first SLS test flight, known as Exploration Mission-1, will send an Orion spacecraft \u2014 without a crew \u2014 toward a unique, unvisited perch in a distant retrograde orbit about 40,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) from the moon.<\/p>\n

NASA plans to build a second SLS launch platform for an upgraded version of the rocket known as \u201cBlock 1B.\u201d The Block 1B rocket will use a more powerful upper stage propelled by four Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engines, not a single RL10 engine as used on the upper stage of the Block 1 version.<\/p>\n

The space agency originally planned to raise the height of the existing mobile launcher for the SLS Block 1B\u2019s bigger upper stage, which was to fly on the second SLS mission \u2014 Exploration Mission-2. The modification would have required nearly three years to finish, effectively grounding the SLS.<\/p>\n

But $350 million in funding approved by Congress earlier this year will give NASA the money it needs to construct a second mobile launcher specifically for the SLS Block 1B configuration. That will free up the current launch platform for EM-2, which will launch with astronauts on the EM-2 mission around 2022, according to NASA officials.<\/p>\n

The EM-2 mission profile will take astronauts on a trajectory around the far side of the moon and back to Earth on the first human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.<\/p>\n

But the current SLS launch platform will still need some work between the EM-1 and EM-2 flights, such as the addition of a crew escape system for astronauts to quickly evacuate the launch pad in the event of a countdown emergency. The escape system will be similar to the slidewire baskets used during the space shuttle program, Hill said.<\/p>\n

The crew access arm on the SLS launch platform will also require additional pneumatic and breathing air equipment before crewed missions.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Space Launch System\u2019s mobile launch platform is pictured with a crawler-transporter during a lift procedure earlier this year. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett The mobile platform intended to carry NASA\u2019s Space Launch System will trek to the mega-rocket\u2019s launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as Thursday, before heading inside the spaceport\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2586,1545,428,25,2079,1534,190,640],"class_list":["post-13627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-exploration-mission-1","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-launch","tag-launch-pad-39b","tag-mobile-launcher","tag-nasa","tag-orion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}