SpaceX,

SpaceX, ULA transforming historic launchpads for commercial crew flights

By Robert Z. Pearlman
Published December 14, 2015
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* A new crew access tower rises beside a United Launch Alliance Atlas
V rocket as the modifications continue to Pad 39A for SpaceX Falcon
rocket crewed launches in the background. The two launch pads are
being readied to support commercial crew l
A new crew access tower rises beside a United Launch Alliance Atlas
V rocket as the modifications continue to Pad 39A for SpaceX Falcon
rocket crewed launches in the background. The two launch pads are
being readied to support commercial crew l (collectSPACE.com)
* Renderings of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V crew access tower
and SpaceX's modified-for-Falcon-rockets Launch Pad 39A.
Renderings of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V crew access tower
and SpaceX's modified-for-Falcon-rockets Launch Pad 39A.
(ULA/SpaceX)

[178]Previous [179]Next

They were the sites where men left for the moon and space shuttles
launched into orbit, where rovers departed for Mars and probes took off
to the outer planets.

Now, two [180]historic Florida launchpads are taking shape for their
new missions: serving as the off (the Earth) ramps for commercial
capsules lofting astronauts to the International Space Station.

Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station are being readied to host NASA astronauts in the
coming two to three years. The construction work includes lowering
historic structures and raising the first new launch gantry to support
crewed launches in more than 30 years. [[181]Video: How SpaceX's Giant
Falcon Heavy Rocket Will Fly]

SpaceX, which in 2014 [182]leased use of Pad 39A from NASA, is
preparing the former Apollo-Saturn V and space shuttle launch pad to
launch its Falcon rockets and Crew Dragon capsules.

Meanwhile, United Launch Alliance is readying its existing Atlas V
facilities at Complex 41 to fly NASA astronauts on Boeing's CST-100
Starliner commercial spacecraft.

"This is what we like to do out here," said Carol Scott with NASA's
Commercial Crew Program. "We want to test. We want to touch hardware,
feel it, test it, process it and put it together. And then we want to
launch it. That's what is real exciting and that is what we are seeing
from both of these companies."

Tower takedown

NASA's Launch Pad 39A has been steadily losing its iconic space
shuttle-era configuration as [183]SpaceX has worked to bring it up to
code and modify it for commercial operations.

"In an essentially a year, they've built a processing facility,
finished up all the construction for their fluid and electrical
systems, and they built the transporter erector," recounted Scott,
who's been focusing on SpaceX's launchpad work as the ground and
mission ops technical lead in NASA's Commercial Crew Program. "They've
made huge strides in this past year to get [this pad] ready."

When the shuttle was flying (and before it the [184]Apollo-era's Saturn
rockets), it was moved from the Vehicle Assembly Building some three
and a half miles away to the pad by a crawler transporter. Standing
vertical atop a mobile launch platform, the shuttle was positioned next
to a fixed gantry tower and then a rotating service structure swung
around to load cargo and further prepare the shuttle for launch.

Source .... : http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/12/14/spacex-ula-transforming-historic-launchpads-for-commercial-crew-flights.html
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