Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: How do they get it pointing up?
Message-ID: <1989Nov23.165049.27447@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1146@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 89 16:50:49 GMT

In article <1146@castle.ed.ac.uk> erci18@castle.ed.ac.uk (A J Cunningham) writes:
>... my SO turned and asked me "How do they get it
>pointing up for launch?" I mumbled something about large cranes.

Correct.  The Vehicle Assembly Building has some, uh, very heavy-duty cranes
built in.  They set up sort of a frame around the orbiter, to carry the load
to points in the orbiter's structure that are meant for this, and the crane
picks it up and carries it off.

>... "How do they get it on the back of the 747?" ...

At Edwards there is a special structure which is essentially a frame with
built-in hoisting gear and a 747-sized hole at the bottom.  I think there's
a similar one at Kennedy.  They wheel the orbiter in, hoist it up, and
then wheel the 747 in underneath.  If NASA had to retrieve an orbiter from
an emergency landing site elsewhere, they'd use a special air-transportable
derrick plus an ordinary heavy-duty mobile crane.  (They tested this when
they took the ex-orbiter Enterprise to the New Orleans world's fair.)
-- 
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu