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National Aeronautics and Space Administration John F. Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899 FOR RELEASE: 07/12/2005 PHOTO NO: KSC-05PD-1502 |
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| No copyright protection is asserted for this photograph. If a recognizable person appears in this photograph, use for commercial purposes may infringe a right of privacy or publicity. It may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA employees of a commercial product, process or service, or used in any other manner that might mislead. Accordingly, it is requested that if this photograph is used in advertising and other commercial promotion, layout and copy be submitted to NASA prior to release. | |
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PHOTO CREDIT:
NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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| KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Lights on Launch Pad 39B put Space Shuttle Discovery in the spotlight after the rollback of the Rotating Service Structure (at left). The Space Shuttle sits on the Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP), which is 25 ft. high, 160 ft. long and 135 ft. wide. An MLP weighs 8,230,000 pounds. At the launch pad, with a fueled Shuttle on the 6-inch-thick decks, it weighs approximately12,700,000 pounds. There are three exhaust openings in the main deck of an MLP. Two are for the exhaust of the SRBs at launch and the third, a center opening, is for the exhaust from the main engines. SRB exhaust holes are 42 ft. long and 20 ft. wide. The main engine hole is 34 ft. long and 31 ft. wide. Discovery is scheduled to launch on the historic Return to Flight mission STS-114 at 3:51 p.m. July 13 with a crew of seven. On the mission to the International Space Station the crew will perform inspections on orbit for the first time of all of the Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) panels on the leading edge of the wings and the Thermal Protection System tiles using the new Canadian-built Orbiter Boom Sensor System and the data from 176 impact and temperature sensors. Mission Specialists will also practice repair techniques on RCC and tile samples during a spacewalk in the payload bay. During two additional spacewalks, the crew will install the External Stowage Platform-2, equipped with spare part assemblies, and a replacement Control Moment Gyroscope contained in the Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure. | |
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