BY LINDA HERRIDGE
W
hen you buy a new car, you take it out for a test drive first. Likewise, as NASA prepares for launch of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, the mobile launcher that will be used is going for a test drive to Launch Pad 39B and the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This 9-mile-roundrip test drive on top the crawlertransporter 2 isn’t a joy ride. Exploration Ground Systems’ Cliff Lanham, lead project manager for the mobile launcher, said moving it will accomplish several goals. “The mobile launcher is being moved to begin the next big program phase for verification and validation of all systems when it is connected to the pad and VAB systems,” Lanham said. The mobile launcher will be used to assemble, process and launch the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft. The nearly 380-foot-tall structure is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to the rocket and spacecraft during processing and launch. Several other umbilicals will provide fuel and stability to the rocket on the surface of the mobile launcher’s deck. To prepare the 11-million-pound mobile launcher for its move, the access platforms were secured, the umbilical arms on the tower were placed in their retracted positions, and access scaffolding and platforms from the ground were removed.
During move operations, the crawler team, including driver Bob Myers, a mechanical systems engineer with ERC on the Test and Operations Support Contract, positioned the crawler beneath the mobile launcher and picked it up for its journey to the pad and VAB. Traveling at a top speed of .7-mile-per-hour, the mobile launcher made its inaugural trek along the crawlerway to Launch Pad 39B for a quick fit check on the surface of the pad. NASA Test Director Jeffrey Brink, lead for testing at Pad 39B, checked out key systems over several days to include ensuring the water suppression systems align and the environmental control system that provides air and gaseous nitrogen purges to the SLS through the umbilicals hooks up properly with the mobile launcher’s ducts that distribute them. During the fit check, the cryogenic system lines
