Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!emx.utexas.edu!clyde
From: clyde@emx.utexas.edu (Clyde W. Hoover)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Liftoff Question
Message-ID: <37261@ut-emx>
Date: 17 Sep 90 02:28:11 GMT
References: <36104@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <SHAFER.90Sep14154432@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov> <7082@alvin.mcnc.org> <1990Sep16.012312.9303@chinet.chi.il.us>
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In article <1990Sep16.012312.9303@chinet.chi.il.us>,
john@chinet.chi.il.us (John Mundt) writes:
|> 
|> What I never understood was why not turn the thing around in the VAB and
|> drive it out to the launch pad the other way.  Then there would be no need 
|> for the fancy rotation.  Put the TV cameras on the other side and everyone
|> is happy. 

You don't see it very often, but the Shuttle service tower almost wraps around
the back of the External Tank.  There is a liquid hydrogen vent arm
that attaches to the ET in about the middle of the "back" (anti-TV side).
This arm is pretty short (in comparsion to the LOX "beanie cap" and crew
access arms).  The track for the Rotating Service Structure also rests
mostly on the "up-ramp" of the pad.

In short, the pad was re-engineered for the shuttle to be set the way that
it is.  The "upside down" orientation during ascent is an unrelated issue.

|> Was the tower built for the Apollo program and thus in the
|> wrong orientation?  

Close:
1. The pads at LC 39 were placed for the launch azimuth for lunar
   transfer orbit.
2. The Saturn V did perform a 'roll' manuever after launch - but being a
   symmetric vechile, did not actually have to rotate.  The Shuttle is not
   symmetric, and thusly has to rotate around the X (I think that's the right
   one) axis to achive the proper azimuth.

	-Clyde Hoover

Shouter-To-Dead-Parrots @ Univ. of Texas Computation Center; Austin, Texas  
	clyde@emx.utexas.edu; ...!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!clyde

Tip #268: Don't feel insecure or inferior! Remember, you're ORGANIC!!
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