Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!mvac23!thomas
From: thomas@mvac23.UUCP (Thomas Lapp)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: How do they get it pointing up?
Message-ID: <117.UUL1.3#5131@mvac23.UUCP>
Date: 29 Nov 89 00:58:27 GMT
References: <1989Nov23.165606.27671@utzoo.uucp>
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> In article <3694@orion.cf.uci.edu> dkrause@orion.oac.uci.edu (Doug Krause) writes:
> >And how is the shuttle supported at launch time?  It seems the tank
> >would be too weak to support the weight of the whole rig.
> 
> No, the tank is strong enough.  It has to be.  From assembly to launch,
> the orbiter hangs on the side of the tank and the tank hangs between the
> two SRBs.  Only the bases of the SRBs are supported.  (In fact, the bases
> of the SRBs are bolted to the mobile pad, using pad-mounted bolts and great
> big explosive nuts.  The nuts are blown at the same instant that the SRB
> igniters fire.)

I assume that one of the reasons that shuttle's engines start before the
solid boosters is to help counteract the tendency of the whole thing to
fall on the orbiter's back?

> -- 
> 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
                         - tom
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