Boasting two fuselages and a wingspan wider than a football field, it's currently the world's largest aircraft, weighing 500,000 pounds when empty and unfueled.
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The spacecraft's total mass is less than with an unfueled dry mass less than .
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The Space Shuttle assembly was held to the MLP at eight holddown points using large studs, four on the aft skirt of each Solid Rocket Booster. Immediately before SRB ignition, frangible nuts attached to the top of these studs were detonated, releasing the Shuttle assembly from the platform. Each MLP weighed unloaded and roughly with an unfueled Shuttle aboard, measured , and was high. They were carried by one of two crawler-transporters (CT), which measure , and high.
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The initial design called for a mobile surface-launched system, but a changing cold war situation saw a silo-based R-9 developed in tandem with the ground-based system. The ground- based system, however, never achieved the hoped-for mobility of the initial design parameters. In total, three launch sites were constructed, but only two were used. "Desna-V", the silo launch area, consisted of three underground silos with the ability to launch the R-9 within 20 minutes, and the ability to store the missile in an unfueled ready condition for one year.
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The ignition source of the fire was determined to be electrical, and the fire spread rapidly due to combustible nylon material, and the high pressure, pure oxygen cabin atmosphere. Rescue was prevented by the plug door hatch, which could not be opened against the internal pressure of the cabin. Because the rocket was unfueled, the test had not been considered hazardous, and emergency preparedness for it was poor. During the Congressional investigation, Senator Walter Mondale publicly revealed a NASA internal document citing problems with prime Apollo contractor North American Aviation, which became known as the Phillips Report.
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High Flux Isotope Reactor Simplified Core 85 MW neutron flux graph for the High Flux Isotope Reactor HFIR is a beryllium- reflected, light-water-cooled and -moderated, flux-trap type reactor that uses highly enriched uranium-235 as the fuel. The preliminary conceptual design of the reactor was based on the "flux trap" principle, in which the reactor core consists of an annular region of fuel surrounding an unfueled moderating region or "island." Such a configuration permits fast neutrons leaking from the fuel to be moderated in the island and thus produces a region of very high thermal-neutron flux at the center of the island. This reservoir of thermalized neutrons is "trapped" within the reactor, making it available for isotope production.
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LADEE is the first spacecraft designed, integrated, built, and tested by NASA's Ames Research Center. The spacecraft is of a novel design (a spacecraft bus never previously flown)—and of much lower cost than typical NASA science missions—which presented novel challenges to the trajectory design team in getting the new spacecraft launched to the Moon with a high-confidence spaceflight trajectory plan, while dealing with a first-use new rocket (Minotaur V) and a spacecraft with no flight test legacy. (see Lunar transit, above.) LADEE mission makes use of the Modular Common Spacecraft Bus, or body, made of a lightweight carbon composite with an unfueled mass of . The bus has the ability to perform on various kinds of missions—including voyages to the Moon and Near-Earth objects—with different modules or applicable systems.
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Months before a launch, the three stages of the Saturn V launch vehicle and the components of the Apollo spacecraft were brought inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and assembled, in one of four bays, into a -tall space vehicle on one of three Mobile Launchers (ML). Each Mobile Launcher consisted of a two-story, launcher platform with four hold-down arms and a Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) topped by a crane used to lift the spacecraft elements into position for assembly. The ML and unfueled vehicle together weighed . The umbilical tower contained two elevators and nine retractable swing arms that were extended to the space vehicle—to provide access to each of the three rocket stages and the spacecraft for people, wiring, and plumbing—while the vehicle was on the launch pad and were swung away from the vehicle at launch.
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Conversely, the failure rate of the Shuttle SRB was used to estimate the failure rate of the Ares I, however only launches subsequent to the loss of Challenger were considered, and each shuttle launch was considered to be two successful launches of the Ares even though the Shuttle SRBs do not include systems for guidance or roll control. The Delta IV is currently launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Complex 37, and the manufacturer, United Launch Alliance, had proposed launching human flights from there. However, in the estimation of costs, the ESAS assumed that all competing designs would have to be launched from Launch Complex 39, and that the Vehicle Assembly Building, Mobile launcher Platforms and pads A and B would have to be modified to accommodate them. The LC-39 facilities are much larger, more complex, older, and more expensive to maintain than the modern facilities at Complex 37 and are entirely inappropriate for the Delta, which is integrated horizontally and transported unfueled.
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