The Construction of Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B

A very personal and technical written and photographic history, by James MacLaren.


Page 7: RSS Continued Progress in the Early Days.
Pad B Stories - Table of Contents

Image 006. Viewed from in front of Sheffield Steel’s field trailer, the structures on Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, can be seen, squarely front-lit in the late afternoon. Visible in this image, you can see the concrete structure of the pad itself, the Sound Suppression System water tower, the red multi-platformed structure of the FSS, and the growing steel framework of the RSS still resting on the falsework which will continue to support it until it becomes sufficiently-complete to carry its own weight, allowing for the removal of the falsework. Photo by James MacLaren.
And here we see the RSS again, from the same location as the previous page, with afternoon lighting, but this image has been taken later on and the RSS is a little bit more complete than it was when we previously looked at it.

Perhaps the most obvious change from the previous image that might catch your eye is the additional areas of white insulated-metal-panels which define the walls of the Elevator Tower, but there is one other significant difference, too.

The Primary Framing in the area bounded by Column Lines 6 to 7, and A to B, between elevations 208'-2" and 171'-2" where the Top Truss slopes sharply downward to its connection points at Column Line 7, remains missing, but the member running from Line 6 to 7, along line B, at elevation 171'-2" has now been fully connected at its Line 6 end, whereas before, it had no stub to connect to, and was being held in its precise position with some noticeably lighter temporary steel bracing at its Line 6 end. With this one visually-minor change, the RSS has become significantly stronger, but it is still far from complete as an independently self-supporting structure, and must continue to remain on the falsework.

At this stage of construction, most of the work was already shifting into the realm of lighter framing and miscellaneous metals, which is what takes up most of the time and budget to complete a project like this one. Much of this work was proceeding on the other side of the RSS, and cannot be seen in the image on this page or the previous one.

I hit you pretty hard on the previous page, with a very similar image, so on this one, I'm going to cut you some slack and leave well enough alone, ok?

There are plenty more good images coming, which we can use to delve deeper and deeper into things, but for now, we'll let it go, and move on to the next page.


Return to 16streets.com

ACRONYMS LOOK-UP PAGE

Contact Email Link
<-- Previous Page Next Page -->