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While Endeavour and Atlantis remain under a protection order from NASA HQ \u2013 based on secretive, albeit unlikely, commercial plan to continue flying the two sisters, as confirmed by Space Shuttle Manager (SSP) John Shannon, before Mission Management Team (MMT) chair LeRoy Cain noted he expects a retraction of the order \u2013 Discovery\u2019s fate has already been sealed.<\/p>\n
With her Orbital Manuevering System (OMS) pods, Forward Reaction Control System (FRCS) and Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) all removed \u2013 the latter of which have been put into protective storage, due to their likely role with the Space Launch System (SLS) \u2013 Discovery has undergone the first phase of her preparations to go on display at the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/A4151.jpg\" "\\"A415\\"")
These propulsive elements, namely \u201cFRC3, LP01, and RP03\u201d have been decommissioned inside KSC\u2019s Hypergolic Maintenance Facility (HMF), prior to their shipping to the NASA facility at White Sands in New Mexico on June 24.<\/p>\nDiscovery was towed out on her wheels \u2013 as opposed to riding on the Orbiter Transporter System (OTS), given her tires aren\u2019t being protected for a post-mission landing \u2013 and entered the VAB looking rather sorry for herself, where she will be cared for by her team, who are utilizing a PPU (Portable Purge Unit).<\/p>\n
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She will spend around a month in the VAB, before a game of musical chairs takes place with the fleet, as each orbiter is put through the initial phase of deservicing, sharing OPF\u2019s 1 and 2, following a processing path led by Discovery. Her departure from OPF-2 clears the way for Atlantis to take up residency once she returns from the ongoing STS-135 mission next week.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/A671.jpg\" "\\"A67\\"")
Next year, Discovery will make one final journey, this time on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), taking the place of Enterprise \u2013 which is moving to a new home in New York.<\/p>\nWhile Discovery will have no trouble mating with the SCA via the Shuttle Landing Facility\u2019s Mate-Demate Device (MDD), work has taken place on how to help her egress the modified 747, once the duo arrive at the world-famous Smithsonian.<\/p>\n
\u201c747 Sling build-up for offloading the orbiters at the museums was completed and heavy equipment transported the sling and Fly Away Kit Conex to the staging area at the MDD,\u201d noted Discovery\u2019s T&R notes (L2). \u201cThe conex will be removed from the transport trailer and work will begin on crane build up to support of the Sling assembly and SIM Run.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/B5.jpg\" "\\"B5\\"")
This planning is being conducted under the guidance of the Management Integration & Planning T&R Readiness Reviews, which is utilizing onsite procedures with all the museums set to receive an orbiter \u2013 the first of which has already been held at the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n\u201cThe fly away kit is a wind restraint system for use with portable cranes and the 743 sling when demating the Orbiter from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at a location that does not have a Mate Demate Device (MDD),\u201d added the T&R notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the setup that will be used when the Orbiters are ferried for delivery to the museum locations. No flight hardware, SCA, or mockups were involved in this test. The Fly away kit demonstration was completed with two successful lift cycles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commercial Use of the OPFs:<\/p>\n
Back at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the eventual departure of its three main tenants \u2013 as much as Atlantis will only be moving down the road to the Visitor Center \u2013 won\u2019t signal an end to Shuttle facilities, as the Florida base aims to become a dual use commercial and government spaceport.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/A411.jpg\" "\\"A4\\"")
Numerous presentations (L2) have been drawn up and modified \u2013 the latest of which was written in June \u2013 showing KSC as the home port for a new family of vehicles, ranging from Orion\/MPCV, through to commercial vehicles, and the SLS.<\/p>\nWhile all the vehicles depicted may not wish to take up KSC as their new location, the Florida spaceport has made no secret about its desire to open up the use of its assets, such as the SLF, VAB, Pad 39B \u2013 which has almost completed its transition to a clean pad \u2013 and indeed the OPFs.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, while rumors of the USAF\u2019s X-37B\u2019s setting up shop inside an OPF can\u2019t be confirmed due to the secretive nature of the military space plane, the new NASA documentation overviews plans for what is known as the 21st Century Space Launch Complex, provided hints to at least one vehicle which may soon be seen inside the former home hanger of the Space Shuttle orbiters.<\/p>\n
\u201cDedicate OPF\u2019s to government and commercial users: Allocate OPF-1 to potential commercial user. Allocate OPF-2 to potential commercial user. Allocate OPF-3 to potential commercial user,\u201d noted the 21st Century Space Launch Complex Architectures Refinement Cycle (ARC) 5.0 presentation (L2).<\/p>\n
NASA managers have already discussed the early release of OPF-3, which is the main reason the current orbiters are moving around just OPF 1 and 2.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/A327.jpg\" "\\"A3\\"")
Presentation slides, while notional, show a herd of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Dream Chasers being processed inside an OPF, portraying as many as four of the spacecraft taking up residency in just one OPF, under the title of \u201cClean Floor Processing\u201d.<\/p>\nSNC class themselves as the complete system provider and claim to have demonstrated significant progress maturing design and development of the Dream Chaser (DC) Space System (DCSS), and were one of the winners of the four Space Act Agreements in the second round of NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2).<\/p>\n
With an appearance of a baby shuttle orbiter, the Dream Chaser would launch atop of an Atlas V \u2013 building on studies which range back several years \u2013 as first revealed via NASASpaceflight.com\u2019s article on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United Launch Alliance (ULA) in 2007.<\/p>\n
The Dream Chaser is a reusable lifting body vehicle based on the form of NASA Langley\u2019s HL-20 spaceplane concept from the 1980s, which can land on a conventional runway.<\/p>\n
Click here for articles on Commercial Space Flight: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/news\/commercial\/<\/p>\n
Thus, this vehicle may be a perfect match for KSC, potentially utilizing an OPF for processing, prior to heading out to either Pad 39B, or more probably the current Atlas V facilities at Cape Canaveral, before landing at the SLF and returning \u2013 just like the orbiters have over their lifetimes \u2013 to the OPF.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/A69.jpg\" "\\"A6\\"")
Interestingly, another slide in the presentation places the Human Rated launches of the Atlas V \u2013 both in the capsule and Dream Chaser configuration \u2013 as launching from Pad Complex 39, advertising a viable option of hosting the vehicle.<\/p>\nThe Falcon Heavy (FH) is also shown as being able to launch from the former Shuttle Pad, along with the SLS (likely to be 39A initially) \u2013 and even the \u201cblack sheep\u201d of future launch vehicles, the Liberty LV, which failed to win a CCDev-2 award.<\/p>\n
For reference, the Cape\u2019s SLC-40 shows Falcon 9\u2019s as the mainstay vehicle for that complex \u2013 as much as SpaceX have noted they are planning a second integration facility for a dual use with Falcon Heavy, placed next to the current Falcon 9 facility at SLC-40. SpaceX have already announced the ground-breaking at the USAF Vandenberg site for the Falcon Heavy.<\/p>\n
The Cape\u2019s SLC-41 is shown as hosting unmanned Atlas Vs, while SLC-37 is shown to be the continued home of Delta IVs and IV-Hs. A vast array of smaller vehicles are also shown for the Cape\u2019s SLC-36 and 46, while the SLF is shown \u2013 as expected \u2013 to be able to host the landing of Dream Chaser and horizontal landing jets, such as XCOR\u2019s Lynx.<\/p>\n
A future article will cover the use of other KSC facilities, such as the VAB, based on the expansive 21st Century ARC presentations.<\/p>\n
(Further articles will follow, as we follow Discovery all the way to the exhibition. L2 members refer to L2\u2019s ongoing coverage sections for internal coverage, presentations, images and and updates from engineers and managers. Images used: NASA and via L2 presentations).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With Discovery now enjoying a month-long vacation inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), following her rollover on Wednesday, the long-term future for the Orbiter Processing Facilities (OPFs) will be heavily focused on attracting the new fleet of commercial vehicles, as the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) transitions into a multi-purpose spaceport. Discovery in the VAB: Following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29639,"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":[7758,7796,3789,8390,9032,316,9022],"class_list":["post-40385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-v","tag-commercial","tag-discovery","tag-dreamchaser","tag-opf","tag-spacex","tag-tr"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40385"}],"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=40385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}