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...Shuttle Assembly Building was not part of the original design of the Vandenberg launch pad. Early plans called for vehicle assembly to take place in the semienclosed environment of the service tower, with the tower's crane and a second device, called a strongback, attached to the Launch Mount Tower, to perform all the hoisting. The system called for a tolerance limit of as much as ¼ in. in fitting the orbiter to the tank. NASA said no, setting the maximum permissible degree of variation at a minuscule ³¹/iooo...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Space: New Pad for the Space Shuttle | 3/5/1984 | See Source »

Unlike the cargo on current flights, Vandenberg payloads such as meteorological and navigational satellites will not have to be placed in bulky canisters to keep them free of contamination. Instead the devices will be taken into the Payload Changeout Room, Slick Six's third movable building. This 158-ft.-high, 6,000-ton structure moves by rail toward the waiting assembly building, where a mammoth door of six panels, each measuring 30 ft. high and 130 ft. wide, will slowly rise, just like a garage door. Inside the building-within-a-building, the payload will be lifted into...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Space: New Pad for the Space Shuttle | 3/5/1984 | See Source »

...water. The water will be stored in two tanks. The 6,000° F heat produced by the shuttle will be tamed by the liquid, generating huge billows of steam from the ducts during and after the launch. At Cape Canaveral, the vents are lined with firebrick; at Vandenberg, they are made from approximately 130,000 cu. yds. of solid concrete. A special vacuuming process was applied to the concrete while it was setting. This sucked out air and moisture quickly, resulting in a nonporous surface that will better resist cracking during blastoff...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Space: New Pad for the Space Shuttle | 3/5/1984 | See Source »

Slick Six's inaugural launch in October 1985 will employ the newest shuttle, Discovery, now being checked out at Cape Canaveral. The exact mission will be top secret, as will all shuttle flights from Air Force-run Vandenberg, but it has been reported that the main job on that first flight will be to ferry two satellites into space. Since Discovery will be placed in a polar orbit, its ground track will cover the Soviet Union. One of those satellites could be a new hush-hush communications package, and the other a device equipped with infrared sensors to spot...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Space: New Pad for the Space Shuttle | 3/5/1984 | See Source »

...Vandenberg has also been the takeoff point for such missiles as the Minuteman and Trident. SLC 6 will be the sixth active launch pad at the base...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Space: New Pad for the Space Shuttle | 3/5/1984 | See Source »

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