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NASA Passes KSC Launch Pad 39B to Project Constellation

Endeavor was the last shuttle attached to it

Jun 2, 2009 18:01 GMT  ·  By
An aerial view of the Kennedy Space Center. In the background, both pads are visible, LC-39A to the left, and LC-39B
   An aerial view of the Kennedy Space Center. In the background, both pads are visible, LC-39A to the left, and LC-39B

Following Sunday's move, when the space shuttle Endeavor was moved from Launch Pad 39B to Launch Pad 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the former launch facility officially passed from the Shuttle Program to Project Constellation. Over the next months, the pad will be heavily modified, so that it will be able to accommodate the ARES I-X test flight, scheduled for later this year.

 

Come 2010, Launch Pad 39A will also complete its tour of duty with the space shuttles, and will become the launching platform for the unmanned ARES V delivery system.

 

“The handover took place Sunday after space shuttle Endeavor was moved to Launch Pad 39A. The ground operations team will finish modifying pad B for the ARES I-X rocket launch. Modifications will include removing the orbiter access arm and a section of the gaseous oxygen vent arm and installing access platforms and a vehicle stabilization system. The ARES I-X flight test is targeted for no earlier than August 30th,” said a press release on the American space agency's website.

 

All shuttle missions from now to the end of 2010, when the three-vessel fleet is scheduled to be retired, will launch from Launch Pad 39A, as the other one will no longer be able to handle the orbiters, on account of the modifications it will undergo. The new rockets are significantly different from the shuttle delivery systems, and need a special pad just for them.

 

However, the situation surrounding the faith of Launch Pad 39A is a bit hazy, because a strong choir of voices have lately criticized NASA's decision to withdraw its fleet in 2010, and if the second launch pad is modified as well, then there is no other facility from which the shuttle can take off if the program is not scrubbed.

 

Until two days ago, Endeavor was docked and prepped for launch at Launch Pad 39B, where it formed the STS-400 rescue mission. In the event that something was to go wrong with the space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission, the orbiter would have been scrambled to assist. But that mission, and the last using Launch Pad 39B, was officially over when Atlantis landed at the Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, after a successful 13-day mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.