Final preparations for the launch of an Apollo mission began weeks in advance, when a 2,700-tonne diesel-powered crawler/transporter employing tracked tractor units derived from heavy open-cast mining equipment entered the 160-metre-tall vehicle assembly building (VAB), jacked itself up under a platform bearing a service tower and a complete but unfuelled Apollo/Saturn space vehicle — a combined load of 5,700 tonnes — and carried it out through one of the VAB’s massive doors and along a 5 1/2-kilometre crawlerway to one of two launch complexes, 39A or 39B, from which the rocket would make its fiery departure.
Launch: a fiery departure
2008-01-01
36 pages
Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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