We're at one of the largest facilities built by NASA, as a matter of fact, we're
in the trenches. No, no, the trench, the flame trench.
I'm Yves Lamont and we're checked in at the Kennedy Space Center, our multi-user
spaceport. We have our boarding pass to the launchpad and with me today is
Regina Spellman. Hi Regina. Hi, how're you doing today? Regina Spellman is the Launchpad Project
Manager and she's gonna tell us a little bit more about the launchpad.
Yeah, well today you're here at Launch Complex 39b. Reason it's B is that we
have two pads actually at Kennedy Space Center, we have 39A and 39B. These were
both built back in the 60s for the Saturn program. They're just over 50
years old. Pad A was completed first and that was really the workhorse during the
Saturn program and then B was built two years afterwards. We did see the launch
of Apollo 10 out here. A lot of people are familiar with the Apollo 11 from the
movies, but Apollo 10 was the dry run for Apollo 11 and that launched from right
here where we're standing. After the Apollo program, Saturn program we went
into the Space Shuttle program and we modified the pad to support the Space
Shuttle. This pad saw 53 Space Shuttle launches.
Wow. On the last of them was STS-116, a beautiful night launch from that was the
last one from here. So where exactly on the pad our we? Right now, where you're
standing is in the flame trench area, or on the apron of the flame trench. If you
look back behind us in the flame deflector, flame trench area, the brick
walls are the trench. The rocket actually sits above this pad surface on the
Mobile Launcher. So all the exhaust from the rocket goes through an opening in
the Mobile Launcher down onto the deflector, what looks like the darker
wall behind us, that's actually a metal deflector, an upside down V shape, and all
that exhaust comes down and impinges on that deflector and gets redirected out
into the ocean, basically down this pathway that we're standing on. And the
reason we have to do that is because the SLS will experience 9 million pounds of
thrust. That exhaust will get, it's not like your car exhaust, that exhaust will
get up to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and that is hot even for Florida. Now I see
three tall towers with those long poles on top of them.
What exactly are those? Yeah, so Florida is very active lightning, it's known as the
lightning capital of the world, so we have erected these lightning towers.
These towers are so tall because any vehicle that can leave the Vehicle
Assembly Building could be protected by these lightning protection towers. The
towers are 600 feet tall and they support a catenary system of wires that
actually provide that protection over the pad surface. So is this where the
Mobile Launcher comes on to the pad? It is. The Crawler brings the Mobile
Launcher from the Vehicle Assembly Building, down the crawlerway and it
actually arrives at the pad and comes up the hill to get on top of the pad
surface. The crawler brings the Mobile Launcher over the flame trench and you
can see there's a crawler track here and there's one on the other side. It
straddles the flame trench. When the crawler sits the Mobile Launcher down it
gets out of the way and the pad takes it from there. There's a tower behind us.
This is a 400,000 gallon water tower. That's about the same size as 27
average-sized swimming pools, if you can imagine. And all that water gets
dumped out in less than 25 seconds. And the purpose of that water is to keep all
of this structure cool, but more importantly, it also prevents the sound
wave from the vehicle. If you think of nine million pounds of thrust, how loud
that must be, and exhausting from the vehicle that sound wave could bounce
back off of the structural steel of the Mobile Launcher and reflect back onto
the launch vehicle and cause damage. But the water that's going into the exhaust
hole helps to dampen that. Wow, so essentially there really is no safe
place on the pad right before launch. Not at all, you need to be several miles away.
Our launch control system is about four miles from here and that's about is
where you want to be on launch day, as close as you want to get. So how do the
astronauts get up to the rocket when they get to the pad? So the Astro Van
actually brings the astronauts to the pad and they will leave the Astro Van
and get on to these elevators. These elevators take them up to the Mobile
Launcher and then there's another elevator that takes them all the way up
to the crew access arm and they cross the crew access arm and enter into the Orion capsule.
Well, thank you Regina for coming out and sharing all this knowledge with us about
the pad. I'm Yves LaMotte from the Kennedy Space
Center, our multi-user spaceport, and we're getting out of the trenches - the
flame trench.