Spaceflight Now




Discovery rolls to the runway for retirement ride
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: April 14, 2012;
Updated @ 3:15 p.m. with wind delay


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In the predawn darkness Saturday, the shuttle Discovery moved ever closer to leaving her home port forever as remaining technicians towed the decommissioned spaceplane to the runway ramp for mounting atop the 747 carrier jet.


Discovery rolls by the 747. Credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now
 
Emerging from a storage bay on the northwestern side of the Vehicle Assembly Building at 5 a.m. EDT, the orbiter passed the former mission preparation hangars, crossed State Road 3 and followed the concrete towway to the Shuttle Landing Facility apron, arriving at the Mate-Demate Device at 7 a.m. EDT.

Having survived the massive layoffs and workforce reductions following the shuttle program's shutdown, a handful of ground specialists went to work getting the four-point lifting structure hooked up to Discovery for the ascent off the ground, retraction of the landing gear and pulling the 747 underneath the spacecraft.

High winds, however, stalled the activities and forced NASA to postpone the hoisting operation until 5 a.m. EDT Sunday. The delay should not impact the planned Tuesday ferryflight, officials said.

One of the escorts walking alongside Discovery on the look out for hazards during the early morning roll was Alan Shinault, a senior aerospace technician with United Space Alliance and 25-year veteran of the shuttle program.

"Discovery was the first one I worked on when I started here, first orbiter I saw and walked under. It's going to be pretty sad," Shinault said of Tuesday's departure. "We've prepared ourselves for this. We have two left, then it's really going to hit when the last one goes."

In the past year, Discovery's toxic hypergolic plumbing and components used for maneuvering the ship in space have been removed to safe those systems for the public. A cleaned thruster nose piece and twin tail pods have been installed on Discovery, as well as three replica main engines.

"Things we used to pride ourselves all these years trying to protect, being really careful working with this or working with that, now we're just cutting wires and taking them apart. It's sad. They only flew one-third of their lives," said Shinault.


Discovery leaves the VAB. Credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now
 
The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, originally built in 1970 by Boeing and then sold by American Airlines to NASA in 1974, is modified to haul the spaceplanes. Its insides largely are removed to save weight and three support struts protrude from the upper surface for attaching the shuttles. Now, this jumbo jet's career that has spanned the entire shuttle era will ferry the orbiters to their final destinations.

Known as NASA 905, the aircraft is scheduled for takeoff Tuesday at 7 a.m. EDT on the non-stop trek to Dulles International Airport for delivery of Discovery to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Northern Virginia.

A makeshift dual-crane contraption will be used to remove the shuttle on Tuesday and Wednesday in preparation for a ceremonial entrance into the museum next Thursday.

"It's mobile, easy to take apart and move around. We've got it up there and people in place putting it together. They have to drill some holes in the tarmac for cable reels and wind restraints to keep the thing from rocking," said Mark Linthicum, a USA technician headed to Dulles for demating Discovery and attaching Enterprise to the 747.


Photographers shoot Discovery's arrival in the Mate-Demate Device. Credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now
 
Nearly 200 holes had to be drilled into the surface to secure the structure in place before grabbing ahold of the shuttle.

"It is this real thick, heavy-duty concrete. We had a bunch of speciality drills and tools they drug up there. They are probably cussing us because they had to do all that hole-drilling before we get there," said Linthicum.

Two cranes, one in the rear and one in the front, will work in tandem to remove the 166,000-pound Discovery orbiter.

"It is going to pick it straight up, we'll pull the 747 out from underneath it, lower it down to about 10-12 feet off the ground, we'll hook up hydraulics and pop the gear down, demate the hydraulics, lower the vehicle the rest of the way to weight-on-wheels, take the aft part of the sling off, bring the nose down (to the ground), take the nose sling off and get ready to tow," said Linthicum, a shuttle worker since 1991.

The contraption has been used in the past for shuttle ferryflights, albeit many years ago. The most recent operation was Enterprise's shipment to Dulles in 1985.

"It's going to be an all-new learning experience for us. None of those guys are still around anymore," Linthicum said.

About a dozen technicians will be among a team of over 30 people, including engineers and managers, going to Dulles for the operations. Many of workers now consider themselves to be a "jack of all trades" and not certain task specialists anymore with current workforce so small.


Illustration of the mobile crane system. Credit: NASA
 
"It's a pretty tight timeline," Linthicum says of removing Discovery from the 747 in preparation for a public parade to the Smithsonian next Thursday.

"Hopefully we'll get a good start, set the table," Linthicum said of the game plan for arrival day Tuesday at Dulles. "We'll work till we get to a safe stopping point, then break and come back in the next day and finish it up."

After Discovery is plucked off the jetliner, sistership Enterprise will be brought to the so-called Apron W on the west side of the airport for its attachment to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

The prototype shuttle, which has been on display at that Smithsonian annex for a decade and located at Dulles even longer, will be hoisted atop the 747 and then depart on April 23 bound for New York City.

"Basically in reverse, we'll hook the sling up, raise the nose off the ground, raise the whole vehicle up, hook up hydraulics, we'll suck up the gear," said Linthicum.

Once Enterprise is bolted in place, the lifting equipment will be packed up like "a traveling roadshow" and head for the New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport where the shuttle is destined.


File image of Enterprise being removed using the mobile crane system in the 1980s. Credit: NASA
 
But demating Enterprise won't be as quick after the New York City landing as Discovery's Dulles touchdown. The pre-op work of setting up the contraption will take a while to complete.

"They already have the area laid out. But we still have to go in and do the final measurements and markings, then start drilling holes," said Linthicum.

"We'll build it all back up, get all the wind restraints anchored. Once we get Enterprise on the ground there, there is another company coming in to be in charge of moving it," Linthicum said of USA's responsibilities ending after the 747 removal.

Enterprise will be parked at JFK until a summertime barge ride to take the shuttle to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, a vintage aircraft carrier located at Pier 86 on the Hudson River.

After those two orbiter deliveries are finished in the coming weeks, NASA 905 also has one final ferryflight planned this September to take Endeavour to Los Angeles before the aircraft is retired from service.

Both Shinault and Linthicum said they hope to remain part of the shuttle team until the bitter end this fall.





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