The Last Shuttle

Atlantis, America’s last space shuttle, is being rolled out to launch pad 39A. (Click the image below for a larger photo.)

The claim is that they (the shuttles) are getting old and therefore unsafe. The way I see it: the technology is getting mature; we’ve found most of the gotchas associated with flying space shuttles. We know about O-rings and cold temperatures; we know about foam insulation hitting the orbiter during launch. So actually, flying a shuttle should be safer now than ever. We should be building more shuttles, better shuttles, with new materials and better computers.

At left: the shuttle Atlantis with booster rockets and external fuel tank is sitting on the Mobile Launcher Platform which in turn is being carried on a crawler-transporter. More shuttle photos can be found at launchphotography.com.

Fully loaded, the top speed of the crawler-transporter is one mile per hour. Because of Federal regulations, the driver must wear a seat belt. Safety first.

I can’t think of a more boring journey than driving at one mile per hour for however many hours it takes to reach the launch pad. It’s a dream job for people who love being stuck in traffic.

This photo (right) shows the Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Complex 39 (click image for a larger photo). Could they have found a swampier piece of ground to build a Space Center? Doubt it.

I’ve been to Kennedy Space Center and I’ve stood beside the crawler-transporter, and it’s an impressive machine. It was built to haul Saturn 1B and Saturn 5 rockets to the launch pad. Each track on a crawler-transporter is taller than a man. There are eight tracks and each track has 57 shoes. Each shoe weighs 2,200 pounds.

At left: a crawler-transporter, which carries the Mobile Launcher Platform, which carries the Space Shuttle. (Click image for a larger photo.)

The crawler has 16 traction motors, powered by four 1,000 kW generators driven by two 2,750 horsepower diesel engines. Two 750 kW generators driven by two 1,065 horsepower engines are used for jacking, steering, lighting, and ventilating. Two 150 kW generators power the Mobile Launcher Platform. The crawler burns 125 U.S. gallons of diesel per mile.

We’ve spent billions of dollars to build up all this infrastructure; we’ve lost too many lives learning how to fly shuttles. And now what? We toss it away? We rely on other countries to get our astronauts to space?

Okay, whatever. We have to do what we have to do. But as someone once said, it’s a hell of a way to run a railroad.