Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!unmvax!polyslo!steve
From: steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: VAB-madness
Keywords: VAB Vandenberg AFB Shuttle
Message-ID: <13709@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>
Date: 22 Aug 89 20:24:58 GMT
References: <2995@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <1258@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Reply-To: steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett)
Organization: Lab Rat Rumpus Room -- Cal Poly SLO
Lines: 30

In article <1258@syma.sussex.ac.uk> nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Nick Watkins) writes:
>In article <2995@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>, mrb1@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (maurice.r.baker) writes:
>> 		There must be a "VAB-like" structure at Vandenberg AFB ...
> I don't think there is exactly. The vehicle was apparently to be
>erected on the pad, so operations would differ from LC39 and also the
>USAF Titan pads at the Cape.

	I believe that the VAB at Vandenberg is a movable building.  That is,
the building is actually two pieces on tracks that slide together during the
assembly phase, then slide apart before launch.  This of course saves on the
cost of having the huge crawlers to transport the shuttle from the VAB to the
pad, and probably cuts the overhead cost for Vandenberg, since they don't have
to maintain a set of new buildings for the shuttle.  Of course, this is all
probably academic now, as I think the Vandenberg site is being decommissioned
(at least for the near future).

	One of the interesting things about Vandenberg (before the shuttle
launch facility cancellation) was that all of the roads leading from the 
main runway (where the shuttle carrier would land) to the launch facility had
to be specially carved up.  If you drive along these roads, you see a notch 
cut out of the hills, right at the height that the shuttle's wings would be
(actually, the whole hill above the level of the shuttle's wings was removed --
I hope that was obvious).

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