As Kennedy Space Center\u2019s transition from the home base of the Shuttle fleet to a multi-user spaceport continues, managers at the facility have noted that the two vacated Orbiter Processing Facilities (OPFs) yet to secure a customer could securely host a military vehicle \u2013 such as the X-37B \u2013 next to a commercial customer.<\/p>\n
KSC Transition:<\/p>\n
Ideally, KSC requires more than just the prospect of launching NASA\u2019s new Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV) \u2013 known as the Space Launch System (SLS) \u2013 to fully utilize its huge base of facilities at the world famous spaceport.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/A411.jpg\" "\\"A411\\"")
At least that\u2019s the plan, with documentation ranging back years showing a large array of smaller vehicles providing company to the \u201cmonster rocket\u201d and its main passenger \u2013 Orion \u2013 under numerous tags, all of which aim to see the retired orbiters replaced by both commercial and government spacecraft.<\/p>\n
That transition has already begun, with only Atlantis remaining at KSC, soon to move down the road to the specially built facility at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, while Boeing\u2019s CST-100 spacecraft has agreed to take up residency inside OPF-3.<\/p>\n
Work has already begun on removing the large platforms that once surrounded an orbiter during processing, allowing for the building to change call sign to the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF).<\/p>\n
That deal \u2013 which included the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Processing Facility and Processing Control Center (PCC) \u2013 was fostered between NASA and Space Florida, while it is expected to mark the return of 550 jobs to the space coast, a welcome boost following the thousands that were lost via the decision to retire the shuttle fleet in the run-up and conclusion of STS-135.<\/p>\n
One of the most likely customers for one of the two remaining OPFs is Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), who have confirmed they are looking at KSC options to host their Dream Chaser vehicle.<\/p>\n
SpaceX (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been in discussions with the Kennedy Space Center and Space Florida about facilities (at the spaceport),\u201d noted Jim Voss, SNC director of advanced programs and program executive for Dream Chaser.<\/p>\n \u201c(However,) an OPF may not be the ideal facility for our vehicle, because they have all the structures that were specific to the shuttle that would have to be removed. We need a large open area, because our vehicle is much more accessible than the Shuttle was, and we don\u2019t need hazardous operations because of our non toxic propellants we have on-board.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we are looking at using a facility at KSC for our processing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it could be a little bit of both,\u201d added Stephanie Stilson, NASA Flow Director for Orbiter Transition and Retirement, to NASASpaceFlight.com\u2019s Philip Sloss. \u201cWe\u2019d come up with a baseline configuration of how we\u2019re planning to turn (the OPFs) over, and there could be some negotiations where we say we\u2019re going to remove the hypergolic hardware and (the customer) could say no we want to use some of that.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we\u2019ll work up a baseline and anything they want to change after that will be their responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n The main question for that option would be the security a military vehicle would require, especially when the two remaining OPFs are practically next door to each other \u2013 likely resulting in a commercial neighbour for the USAF space plane.<\/p>\n Despite that not being an ideal scenario for the X-37B, Ms Stilson claims an OPF used for a military vehicle \u2013 without specifically citing the USAF vehicle \u2013 could be provided with the reassurance of separated facility from a security standpoint.<\/p>\n \u201cThat could happen, sure. It depends on the nature of the different customers that are there. But we could come up with ways to keep them separated, so if we needed to have a secure location in OPF-1 versus OPF-2, we could set that up so that if you are badged to go into OPF-1, you can\u2019t go into OPF-2.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s something we could work, and we have considered that given it\u2019s most likely we\u2019ll have two separate customers for those two bays.\u201d<\/p>\n There are other potential customers for an OPF, including XCOR\u2019s Lynx spacecraft, which will be using the near-by Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) as a take off and landing option.<\/p>\n (Images via L2, USAF, Brian Papke, MaxQ\/NASASpaceflight.com and Philip Sloss, NASASpaceFlight.com)<\/p>\n (With the shuttle fleet retired, NSF and L2 are providing full transition level coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS\/CRS\/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles. <\/p>\n (Click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/ \u2013 to view how you can access the best space flight content on the entire internet and directly support NSF\u2019s running costs)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Kennedy Space Center\u2019s transition from the home base of the Shuttle fleet to a multi-user spaceport continues, managers at the facility have noted that the two vacated Orbiter Processing Facilities (OPFs) yet to secure a customer could securely host a military vehicle \u2013 such as the X-37B \u2013 next to a commercial customer. KSC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29589,"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":[],"class_list":["post-39988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39988"}],"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=39988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Z3141.jpg\" "\\"Z3141\\"")
However, per comments to NASASpaceFlight.com, SNC are keeping their cards close to their chests as to whether they favor taking over an actual OPF, citing the need for a clean floor environment, as opposed to housing their Dream Chaser fleet in the midst of gantry platforms and hypergolic hardware, all of which was very specific to the Shuttle orbiters and of no use to their space plane.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Z341.jpg\" "\\"Z34\\"")
KSC managers are already fully aware that some work would be required to make the OPFs more attractive to the likes of Dream Chaser, who have evaluated \u2013 and used the \u201cbaby orbiter\u201d as an example in NASA presentations \u2013 \u201cclean floor processing\u201d concepts.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Z79.jpg\" "\\"Z7\\"")
Another potential vehicle that has often been cited as a likely candidate to set up a processing base at an OPF is the USAF\u2019s X-37B \u2013 currently awaiting its third mission atop of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle from \u201cjust down the road\u201d at Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n