Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ƒ/8
16 mm
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Looking back to the enormous Vehicle Assembly Building, three miles in the distance, connected by the massive crawler tracks.
Here is my video tour of Pad 39A. And more photos below.
6 responses to “The view from the top of Pad 39A”
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On the left is the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm, which positions a hood, often called the "Beanie Cap" or "Dome Cap" over the top of the External Tank nose cone during fueling:
Heated gaseous nitrogen is used there to remove the extremely cold gaseous oxygen that normally vents out of the external tank. This prevents the formation of ice that could fall and damage the shuttle.The staircases connecting the Rotating Service Structure, look like something out of Hogwarts:
A robust zip-line experience…
In an emergency, the crew would leave the shuttle and ride an emergency basket down these slide wires to the ground at speeds reaching 55 miles per hour (89 km/h). From there, the crew take shelter in a bunker.And off in the distance, the Shuttle launch structures have been completely removed already from Pad 39 B:
(Next photo page from the Pad 39A tour.)
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And this is another cool music (sort of) by Philip Glass:
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Escape basket details:
spaceflightnow.com/news/n1203/19baskets/
And even more….
When you look at everything that goes into supporting human space flight and exploration it is really really hard to come up with purely economic justifications. I know how it works as far as the reality of funding via the big govs of the world as they could never justify that level of spending without the popular / populist aspects of the human element.
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