Major hardware for the Space Shuttle's Return to Flight
mission, STS-114, is coming together at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center, Fla.
An important milestone was achieved Monday, when technicians
began stacking Space Shuttle Discovery's right Solid Rocket
Booster in the Vehicle Assembly Building. This signifies the
beginning of assembly for the flight, which is planned for
launch next spring.
Stacking the Shuttle's Boosters on the Mobile Launch Platform
is a significant step to prepare Discovery for launch. The
Mobile Launch Platform, a two-story tall, nine-million-pound
steel structure, is the launch base for the Space Shuttle.
Once the Shuttle vehicle is assembled, the platform is
transported to the launch pad. The Shuttle vehicle consists
of the obiter, Solid Rocket Boosters and the External Tank.
"In our Return to Flight planning, we have systematically
emphasized that our preparations for launch would be
milestone driven," said Michael Kostelnik, deputy associate
administrator, International Space Station and Space Shuttle
Programs. "Stacking of the Shuttle's Boosters is clearly one
of those key milestones and indicative of the progress the
program continues to make."
Assembly will continue this week until both the right and
left Solid Rocket Boosters are stacked and ready to be
connected with the External Tank and the Orbiter. The next
step will be to join the External Tank to the Boosters.
"It's certainly great to see the assembly of the vehicle
begin," said Michael Rudolphi, manager of Space Shuttle
Propulsion Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala. "This is an important milestone on the road
back to U.S. human spaceflight."
The Solid Rocket Boosters are the largest solid rockets ever
designed. Each is 149 feet high and 12 feet in diameter and
produces 2.65 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. Each
Booster consists of four segments -- solid propellant; solid
rocket motors, vertically stacked with a nose cone on top;
and the aft skirt, or base of the Booster, on which the
entire vehicle weight rests prior to launch.
Stacking, or assembling the Reusable Solid Rocket Motors into
the Booster, begins with transferring the aft skirt from the
Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility to the Vehicle
Assembly Building. When the segment arrives, it is mounted on
the Mobile Launch Platform. The segment is attached to the
platform with four, 28-inch-long, 3.5-inch-diameter bolts.
Cranes are used to continue stacking the remaining fueled
segments, the top of the booster, called the frustum, and the
nose cone to form a complete Booster.
The Solid Rocket Boosters work with the main engines for the
first two minutes of flight to provide the additional thrust
needed for the Shuttle to escape the gravitational pull of
the Earth. At an altitude of approximately 24 nautical miles,
the Boosters separate from the External Tank, descend under
parachutes, and land in the Atlantic Ocean. They are
recovered by ships, returned to land and refurbished for
reuse.
For more information about NASA's Return to Flight efforts,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight
