Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A with Challenger STS-6

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

but after the daydreaming now back to the somewhat smaller Payload Canister (1:160).

 

For this I have to go back to this image again, on which the lower Door Actuators with the Screw Jacks and the central Door Actuator Pneumatic Drive can be seen.

 

Source: NASA (STS-135)

 

And these are these pretty filigree assemblies that I need now.

 

 

But before I can glue them onto the side walls of the canister, a test should show whether and how well the distances of the respective connection points of the pipes (blue arrows)  from the wall correspond. In addition, the exact lengths of these pipes had to be determined for later assembly.  

 

The Pneumatic lines (red arrow) will come later.

 

Source: NASA (STS-135)

 

These pipes connect the central Bevel Gearbox (1mm x 1mm), which is seen here,

 

Source: NASA (STS-132)

 

with the drive shaft housings (0,5 mm x 0,5 mm x 1,5 mm) located behind the Worm gears (Ø 1,0 mm x 1,0 mm) of the lifting Screw Jacks and must therefore be aligned with each other.

 

Source: NASA (STS-135)

 

Here the three assemblies are laid out on the Starboard Side template of the canister.

 

 

Then I put a round rod (Ø 0,5 mm) in between and marked the required length of the pipe.

 

 

And that piece of pipe rests here on a spacer at about the same level between the Bevel Gearbox and the Screw jacks drive shaft housing. If you look closely, you can see that it could be about 1 mm longer.

 

 

So much for today's re-entry into the subject matter.

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

before installing these filigree and extremely fragile structures on the canister side walls, I had to think carefully about how best to proceed in order not to end up shipwrecked. Scratch building these challenging things were far too time-consuming for that, nothing was allowed to go wrong.

 

One possibility would be to glue the central Pneumatic drive and the two Door actuators with their Screw jacks onto the provided places of the side wall, for which purpose an exact positioning of the three groups on a contour line would have to be realized, which could be complicated. Then the two matching rods could be glued in the gaps between.

 

It would probably be more skillful in a first step to glue round rod (Ø 0,5 mm) to the housing behind the Worm gear of the Screw Jack, followed by checking the position on the side wall by placing the rod on the drive, and then to determine the required length.

 

And for this variant then I decided, as can be seen in this image, where I marked the length of the rod next to the Bevel Gearbox,

 

 

after what  it could be carefully cut to the final length.

 

 

But then I noticed that the rod somehow looked a bit too thick compared to the Screw Jack's Protection tube (Ø 0,5 mm), especially since I remembered thinner tubes (< Ø 05 mm) from various photos, which was also confirmed afterwards, because I had planned round rods (Ø 0,3 mm) for this.

 

These pipes still have these rings on both sides, probably flanges for mounting them, which I wanted to simulate with Lead wire (Ø 0,2 mm).

 

Source: NASA (STS-126)

 

So I separated the thicker rod and replaced it with a rod (Ø 0,3 mm), which I glued onto the right Screw jack, which I liked better.

 

 

Then I wound the  Lead wire around a brass wire (Ø 0,3 mm) to form a spiral and separated it lengthwise with a razor blade.

 

 

 

I then threaded these whorls back onto the wire and rolled them tightly, which was like herding cats, resulting in tiny rings.

 

 

The threading of these two rings onto the rod was even more stressful in order not to bend or even kink it, wherefore patience was required.

 

Then the left end of the rod was also be glued to the Bevel gearbox of the drive,

 

 

which finally succeeded and even exceeded my expectations.

 

 

And on the canister it looks good  too.

 

 

The left part of the pipe connection I will now make in the same way, and then continue on the other Side wall (Port Side) with the same procedure.

[roma847]

Hello everybody

 

my assistant thinks I should continue slowly.

 

 

First, I glued the rod to the housing of the worm gear of the left Door Actuator assembly and let it dry briefly.

 

 

Then it was time to try on these wriggly parts on the payload canister and to mark the protruding rod length on the housing.

 

 

After that I almost wanted to glue the stick together, but fortunately I remembered the two rings, which have to be threaded on and glued on beforehand.

 

 

After they were finally threaded and glued, I fixed the right part of the assembly with my Balsa pin technique to prevent it from slipping,

 

 

and then I first checked the arrangement of the components again, which actually matched out quite well.

 

 

And then, with the courage to take risks, I decided to take the last option I had in mind, and have also pinned tight the left assembly group and glued the rod at the left side of the housing.

 

 

And the fragile result is quite impressive, but should be treated with caution from now on in further handling.

 

 

 

And so the entire Door Actuator group could now be glued onto the side wall,

 

 

but what I'm putting back for the time being until the second group for the other side wall (Port side) is glued together, because Discretion is the better part of valour!

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

due to the occasion, here is a small detour back to NASA's Astrovans, which have also developed further in the course of the various programs, which I discussed in detail at the end of 2021.

 

After that, this model was used during the Apollo Program,

 

Source: wikimewdia.org

 

as well as at the beginning of the Shuttle Program,

 

Source: NASA

 

and was later replaced by more modern vans, which also offered enough space for larger crews.

 

Source: NASA

 

Source: live.staticflickr.com

 

And these are the current Astrovans, three specially designed, all-electric and environmentally friendly Crew transport vehicles for the Artemis missions, which arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on July 11, 2023,

 

Source: flickr.com (NASA)

 

Source: flickr.com (NASA)

 

wherewith we are also completely up-to-date in this regard.

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

and now the same fragile pipe linkage again for the other Canister side (Port side).

 

 

How good when you've done it all before.

 

 

So first the connecting pipes have to be cut to size again.

 

 

And then it goes on: The same procedure as on the other side!

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

OMG, after the rod was glued to the Screw Jacket Worm gear and shortened to the required length, I almost had the other end glued with the central door drive without the two rings,

 

 

but what I quickly made good for it.

 

 

Then the other round rod was glued to the left Worm gear, shortened to the final length, provided with the two rings and fixed for gluing by Balsa clamping bars. 

 

 

Both pipes were then be glued to the drive. 

 

 

After drying, the linkage could be carefully removed from the balsa fixation and looks confusingly similar to its twin,  

 

 

wherewith also the Door actuator for the Port Side is complete.

 

 

For the sake of completeness, I have also added the already finished Outrigger, 

 

 

 

and have put the Ladders, which first have to be airbrushed.

 

 

Thereto also a few small parts will come that have already been completed and are well stored.

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

long enough I have ducked out of painting the ladders, because I just wasn't sure how to hold these fragile structures during painting without, in the worst case, scrapping them.

 

 

Then I wasn't sure too whether I should paint them with the Spray cans from Tamiya or rather with the Airbrush.

 

The use of spray cans has the disadvantage that the paint jet can hardly be dosed, at best via the distance to the object, which is not a reproducible solution.

 

So I guess I'll try airbrushing.

 

In order to be able to paint the ladders from both sides, I finally came back to a holder that I used years ago, for which I've glued the end of the ladders' columns with UHU-CA onto a bent-out Paperclip,

 

 

hoping this compound will withstand the airbrush paint flow, which is why I have to proceed carefully when doing so.

 

To be on the safe side, I will first test this on a Dummy,

 

 

to see if this is a workable solution.

[roma847]

Hello friends,

 

don't be surprised about my long break, but firstly I still need new seals for my airbrush gun before I can paint the ladders for the Payload Canister and secondly I'm very busy preparing for my trip to Florida, to which I'll fly on October 2nd from Stuttgart via Atlanta to Orlando.

 

From there I'll drive with a rental car to Cocoa Beach, check in there for a week in the Best Western Hotel and hope that I can watch the Psyche Launch of a Falcon 9 Heavy from the Apollo Saturn V Center, which is scheduled for the 5th October 10.38 am.

 

And if everything goes well, I'll be very close to you in four weeks today.

 

So please keep your fingers crossed!

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

my Florida trip is getting closer and closer and time is running out, so I have to rush with an update.

 

In 14 days (October 2nd) at this time I will be on board a Boeing 767-300 towards Atlanta, from where it will continue at 6.35 p.m. in a Boeing 757 to Orlando.

 

From there I drive the next day with the rental car to Cocoa Beach, where I'll stay at the Best Western Cocoa Beach Hotel for a week and will visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

 

The highlight will rise there according to plan on 5. October, if according to the current schedule at 10.38 a.m. a SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy is supposed to take off from Launch Pad 39A for the NASA Psyche Mission.

 

Source: kennedyspacecenter.com

 

Hopefully the schedule stays that way, because I bought tickets for my friend Mike Robel and me for watching the liftoff from the Apollo/Saturn V Center, who lives in Merritt Island and is a loyal follower of my construction report in the NASASpaceflight forum.

 

In the meantime, I've dealt again with the Diorama planning.

Together with my friend Arno (McPhönix), who has built the Current bank for the LED lighting, we have checked the cabling again to get a more detailed overview of the respective connections and interfaces on the Diorama.

 

To do this, I rolled out my Dio floor plan again and temporarily placed some prefabricated assemblies on it for illustration, what with the Tower and the RSS was again a shaky and stressful affair.  

 

 

In memory of my friend Thomas Emberger (golgi863), who died six years ago, I put his Hammerhead Crane with Lightning Mast on his FSS Tower, which his wife had left to me as an estate at the time.

 

Then I've added a few more models, for which I would like to show the following pictures here in a loose sequence without many words. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that you like the images and that they compensate a bit for the longer break, as well as that they provide a good overview of the diorama, on the floor plan of which I will now mark and measure the essential cabling routes for a detailed planning, which I definitely want to do before my departure.

[roma847]

Hello friends,

 

in the meantime I have dismantled the fragile Dio assemblies and stowed them in a cupboard, better safe than sorry.

 

I showed this image years ago when I presented Thomas' model building estate. He had made a small scaffolding platform especially for his Hammerhead Crane, on which the crane equipped with LED lamps with the red warning beacon on the top of the lightning protection mast could stand reasonably safely.  

 

Such a beacon never existed there at any time during the Shuttle program, which he initially had vehemently denied and then finally accepted when I provided him with the photos as evidence, but his Beacon remains on it, as he wanted it at that time.

 

 

And because we're reminiscing so nicely, I have a little bonus here, namely the simulated legendary Stunt of my friend James MacLaren standing on the top of the mast of Pad 39B, which he was involved in buildup during the whole time.

 

 
Source: James MacLaren - 16streets.com

 

 

 

 

He's currently in the middle of moving inland from Cocoa Beach, but if time allows, we could perhaps meet briefly, which I would be very happy about.

[roma847]

Hi guys,

 

Breaking News: The launch of the NASA Psyche mission has been postponed until October 12th.

 

Source: NASA

 

Hopefully all will work then better.

 

It's time to say Good bye for three weeks. See you later.

[roma847]

Hello my friends,

 

first just a short message.

 

After three and a half weeks I'm back from an extraordinary and highly impressive vacation in Florida and several visits to the Kennedy Space Center, which I even flew over in a Helicopter Ride (doors off!), whereby the gigantic ET/Booster Stack in front of the Atlantis hall looked so small like my model Shuttle stack (1:144).

 

BTW, the launch of NASA's Psyche Mission has been postponed once more, to Friday October 13th, which is my lucky day. And therefor it was a picture book launch of the mighty Falcon 9 Heavy, which totally has thrilled me and my two friends Mike Robel from Merritt Island and James MacLaren from Cocoa Beach.

 

Since I first would still have to upload my original video, you can watch here a fantastic NASA video of the Psyche Mission Launch from Launch Pad 39 A. 

Enjoy!

Source: NASA

 

On the KSC Explore Tour one can get closer to the interesting areas of the huge Launch Complex, such as the Launch Pad 39 A, or what's left of it.

 

 

 

 

But perhaps more on that elsewhere. I first have to transfer my more than 120 GB of photos and videos from my son's 1 TB Family OneDrive and the rest from my Samsung smartphone to my PC.

[bissyboat]

Fantastic documentation on your build. This might be one of those eternity-projects that could last until the next Solar eclipse. ⚓😄👍

[roma847]

Thanks for your nice compliment, 

 

maybe, let's wait and see.  

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

BTW, every day in the KSC Visitor Complex, astronauts report on their shuttle missions in the Astronaut Encounter and answer questions from visitors. 

 

So also did Wendy Lawrence, who flew four missions from 1995 to 2005, STS-67, STS-87, STS-91 and STS-114, the so-called Return To Flight Mission, the first mission two years after the Columbia disaster STS-107 (2003).

 

 

Source: KSC Visitor Center 

 

I've asked her two questions, the first about her feelings after being selected as a crew member for that very important mission, STS-114, against the tragic backdrop of the previous Columbia disaster.

 

For the second question, I had thought of a special and admittedly somewhat unusual question that really surprised her, that she hadn't expected and therefore had to search for words first. 

 

 

But this is a story about a sensitive subject, which is controversially discussed in public and which has interested and concerned me for a long time. 

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

 

for the sake of completeness, I would like to briefly state my two questions and Wendy's answers.

 

1st Question:

 

"What were your feelings when you had been selected as a crew member for the Return to Flight Mission STS-114, given the tragic Columbia disaster two years earlier?

 

She analogously replied that on the one hand she was fully aware of the importance of this test mission after the Columbia disaster, but on the other hand she felt very honored to have been selected for this very important mission.

 

My second question, which may have been a bit delicate for a NASA astronaut, caused a murmur in the room ...

 

2nd Question:

 

"What do you know about Area 51, Complex S-4 and the UFO Crash in Roswell 1947, the year I was born in Germany?"

 

And that was her answer.

 

"Nothin’ (laughs). I’ve never been to Area 51, not a question I can really answer, although I do think that it’s interesting now that there’s been some attention devoted to UNEXPLAINED AERIAL PHENOMENA - UAP, that’s what it’s called by the government right now.
Have I, did I see anything during my Shuttle missions? NO. I know of people who, flying in high altitudes, saw some things they couldn’t explain, so, there is no harm in doing that research trying to figure out what it is, what people had seen there."

 

She at least tried to answer honestly, for which I thanked her.  

 

After the round of questions one could have a photo taken with her in front of the Astrovan and receive an autograph with a dedication on her mission photo, which I was very happy about.

 

 

 

 

All in all, a successful conclusion after the interesting Explore Tour on my last day at the KSC, at the end of a fantastic and eventful Florida trip, which I will remember for a long time.  

[roma847]

Hello friends,

 

indeed, it was a fantastic vacation and the discovering of the KSC Visitor Complex step by step during my Mission STS-2023 was a complete success, more than I ever expected or dreamed of.

 

 

The support from my friends Mike Robel and his family, Pad 39B old hand James MacLaren and Richard Chamberlain was great, I couldn't have asked for better tour guides.

 

 

Mike Robel and his wife, visiting the Canaveral National Seashore with me.

 

 

James MacLaren and Mike Robel, on the way back after watching the overwhelming Psyche Mission Launch. 

 

 

Richard Chamberlain and me next to the front section of a B-52 in the War Bird Museum in Titusville.

 

And here are a few snapshots from the KSC Visitor Complex. Of course, a photo of me in front of the NASA Meatball right at the entrance should not be missing from the photo collection.

 

 

 

An awesome view from the spectacular Helicopter Ride,

 

 

and during the KSC Explore Tour.

 

 

At the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB),

 

 

near Launch Pad 39-A,

 

 

at the beginning of the Orbiter Access Arm (OAA),

 

 

with the White Room.

 

 

Visiting the Atlantis hall with greetings from her majesty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The legendary Shuttle fleet.

 

 

Last not least some new pictures for my Filder Space Center Gallery.

 

 

Maybe I also should write a travel report.

[Mustermark]

That was a wonderful trip! It looks like you had a lot of fun.

I hope to take my daughter there next year when she visits from England.

[roma847]

Thanks Mark for your nice words, that's right!  I wish you and your daughter the same fun next year. 

 

I always have to think back to the great time, the memory of being live at the historical sites and objects of US Space flight is totally overwhelming.  

 

Nevertheless, I have to and want to come back to my craft table soon in order to go on.  

[brianthemodeller]

So, for the last 10 years or so this amazing build thread has been on the first page of the Sci-fi section. I didn’t want that record to be spoiled so, in @roma847 ‘s (Manfred’s) absence, I thought I’d give it a little bump!

 

Hope that’s OK?

[roma847]

Good to hear from you, my friend, that you're still hanging in there. 

 

There's no need to be afraid, the show must and will go on. 

 

I have just started my German travel report, so my build report with the Payload Canister will continue soon.  

[roma847]

Hello my friends,

 

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are doing well.

 

I have just started my German travel report, so my construction report with the Payload Canister will continue soon too.

 

Best wishes and a Happy New Year.

[roma847]

Hello friends,

 

and sorry guys, I'm still too busy with my travel report at the moment, which is quite time-consuming. 

 

To bridge the gap, I can offer the Raumcon link for anyone interested, but unfortunately only in German.    

 

But maybe you can have it translated or just look at the images and videos, that will be enough entertainment, I think, until I'll continue with the Payload Canister. 

 

Trip to Florida and visit to the KSC 2023 

 

Enjoy all and have a little bit fun.  

[roma847]

Dear friends,

 

this year too, let us stay for a moment in silent memory the memorable day in 1986 of the Challenger accident 38 years ago and together remember the crew of the STS-51L mission,

Source: NASA

 

which ended in a disaster 73 seconds after lift-off, in which the Challenger Crew lost their lives ...

 

Front: Michael Smith, Francis Scobee, Ronald McNair; Back: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik 
Source: wikimedia.org

 

May they rest in peace - Keeping their legacy alive forever.  

[Theb]

I seriously hope that when this is finished, you donate it to the Science Museum here in London so I can and other's can see this marvel first hand.

 

Stupendous work and I'm learning so very much from you.

 

I'm guessing there will be a figure of one of the Astronauts in the making and I'm also guessing that they'll be eating a cheese and pickle sandwich with every chunk of pickle lovingly modelled to perfection! 

 

Your detailing is beyond sublime 👍