The Construction of Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B

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


Page 48: First Retract.
Pad B Stories - Table of Contents

Image 049. The Rotating Service Structure at Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida spans the Flame Trench following its first-ever rotational proof-test, just prior to being retracted back to the demate position it was constructed in by Union Ironworkers from Local 808 working for Wilhoit Steel Erectors. Photograph by James MacLaren.Image 050. The Rotating Service Structure at Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, begins to swing grandly back around to the demate position it was constructed in by Union Ironworkers from Local 808 working for Wilhoit Steel Erectors, following its initial rotational proof-test in which it was swung through 120 degrees of end-to-end travel, for the first time ever, into its mate position, spanning the Flame Trench. Photograph by James MacLaren.Image 051. The Rotating Service Structure at Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, constructed by Union Ironworkers from Local 808 working for Wilhoit Steel Erectors, continues its initial proof-test, pivoting its four-million pound weight around through 120 degrees of end-to-end travel, returning for the first time ever, back to the location it was constructed in. Photograph by James MacLaren.Image 052. The Rotating Service Structure at Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, constructed by Union Ironworkers from Local 808 working for Wilhoit Steel Erectors, shows no outward sign that it has just completed one-third of a full pirouette, pivoting its colossal mass of four million pounds back around to the position which had occupied during the years of its initial construction phase, completing its first proof-test rotational demonstration that it was in fact designed well, and built well. Photograph by James MacLaren.
And when it came time to roll back, Dick Walls was adamant that I stay put, right there in the Sheffield Steel field trailer.

And I was disappointed like a little kid, when he made it clear that I was NOT going to be allowed up on the Pad Deck when the RSS was rolling.

And at the time, I didn't really understand what he was on about with this, but he had by then already long-since turned into my second father, and I did exactly as I was told without complaint, and it was only later that I realized that my original purpose out there on The Pad, as an answering machine, had never quite gone all the way away, and if ever there was a day when the fastest-possible response to an inbound phone call might turn out to be critical... well then, that day is today, and you're staying put right here in this trailer MacLaren, like it or not.

And of course, me being me, I just had to sneak outside... with the door to the trailer wide open so I could hear the goddamned phone if it rang (which it never did, thankfully), and grabbed these frames during the rotation as four million pounds of steel came easing back beneath a gorgeous late-morning Florida Sky, swinging around in my direction, slowly, ever so slowly.

And it did so in utter silence.

And there was no work being done on the pad, by anybody, during the conduct of this functional test, and the enveloping silence was thereby redoubled.

Not so much as a single squeak or whisper.

Not even the sound of the breeze blowing.

As if in a dream.

And then it was back in the demate position once again, and no longer moving once again, and that was that.

And now NASA could move forward with the next phase of their Space Shuttle Program, with a very large and very critical milestone safely behind them.

The damn thing worked!!!

Exactly as they intended it to.




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