The facilities and planned operations of the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) at Kennedy Space Center are described, noting an eventual goal of five to six weeks turnaround for the vehicle. The dual-bay OPF is being developed to handle processing of two Orbiters in parallel. Once in the facility, all fuels are drained, parts and systems needing maintenance are removed for shipping and refurbishing or repair in-place, hazardous cargo is secured, and a thorough visual inspection is made of all accessible areas. Mobile launch platforms previously used as transports in the Apollo program have been upgraded and modernized and serve for the Shuttle launch preparations. Details of launch procedures are outlined, and the reduction of launch personnel to 45 persons is mentioned. Finally, details of payload insertion and mating with the Spacelab modules are described, along with the progress on the test flights.


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    Title :

    Moonport to Spaceport - The changing face at KSC


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    1982-08-01


    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





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