Launch Control

One of the major things Kennedy Space Center does is launch vehicles into orbit. For the shuttle this is done from a building called the Launch Control Center, or LCC. I didn't have a good picture of the outside of the building, so the model below will have to do.


Emma's Astronaut and I entered through the main lobby in the LCC. After a launch this room is full of people celebrating a successful start of the latest NASA mission and enjoying a KSC tradition: the after launch beans and cornbread. Nobody I have asked has ever been able to tell me how it started, so I was very happy to find the answer here.


This is Emma's Astronaut in the lobby next to the model I used for my LCC picture. The LCC is the small white building to the right. The big one is the VAB, which I'll talk more about on another stop.


Along the north wall of the lobby are plaques for all of the NASA missions. Each has the mission patch in the middle and the launch and landing dates underneath.


There's also a great mural running along the south wall.


One of the other cool things scattered around the building are the whiteboards. For every launch the astronauts' kids are given a large whiteboard where they can draw pictrures and leave messages for their parents going into orbit. Later they get framed and hung up somewhere to remember the mission. This hallway on the 4th floor of the LCC is covered with them.



The LCC has 4 rooms that can be used to launch a vehicle into space. We call these the firing rooms. Right now one is under construction so it can be used for the new rockets NASA is building, but the other three are being used to watch and talk with the orbiters: Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour. This is Emma's Astronaut outside of Firing Room #3.

Inside there are computers everywhere, with one station for each part of the shuttle that has to be watched. This picture is from the very back of Firing Room #3 looking toward the station (or console) for Flight Control.



Next we walked across the hall to Firing Room #4, which was recently remodeled. This is the room they have used for the last few launches and will be using again for STS-117 in March.



Emma's Astronaut says "Flight Control is Go."


And we have lift-off!

Checking out the STS-117 Tank

Until this week Emma's astronaut has been on the wall in my office waiting for her tour to begin.


It took longer than I would have liked, but she finally made her first trip out to explore. Today's Destination: The ET Holding Cell.

The ET, or External Tank, is the big orange part of the shuttle that holds all of the fuel for the engines at launch. After the tank is empty it disconnects from the orbiter and burns up while falling back to the ocean. The ET is built in Louisiana and delivered to Kennedy Space Center by boat.


When the tank gets to KSC we take it off the boat and move it into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). It seems tiny sitting in the VAB, so it's easy not to realize how large it is. Even I forget until I'm standing right next to it. To compare it to the biggst thing I can think of right now, the ET is around 5 elephants long (154 feet), 2.5 elephants tall (28 feet), and 3.5 elephants in weight when it's empty (58,800 pounds).


After the tank is inside the VAB we pick it up and put it in a holding area until it's time to attach it to the rest of the shuttle. The foam is very fragile, so the tank is safer there than if we left it in the middle of the building. We can also do any work needed to get it ready for launch. Without a tank in it, the holding area looks something like this:


This cell very high up - over 250 feet if you're on top. The building is big enough that you don't really notice. Unless you look down at the floor...


Right now there is a tank in one of the holding cells that will be used for the launch in March. They are supposed to move it tomorrow morning to connect it to the rest of the shuttle and I wanted to see it before it went. We started at the top and worked our way down so we could see all of it.



At the lowest level we had our picture taken under the ET.

Photo: Bill W.

I was a little scared standing directly under it, so I'm glad it didn't fall. We definitely would have been squashed.

Thanks go to my friend Bill in the VAB for his help making this tour stop possible. Where is Emma's Astronaut going next? I haven't decided yet. It could be anywhere.

Introduction

As the description at the top of the page says, the purpose of this blog is to document the places at the Kennedy Space Center where I take an astronaut that my cousin Emma gave me the last time I went home to visit my family. I was so excited about an opportunity to show of "my" center that I wanted to share it with as many people as I could and the idea for the blog was born.

Before I start the "tour" I figure I should answer some of the questions I get most often about myself and my experiences when talking to people. If there's anything else you want to know - either about me or the pictures I post - feel free to ask.

How long have you been at KSC? What do you do there?
I started with NASA in June of 2004 after graduating from Florida Tech with a degree in Computer Science. I'm currently working on modeling and simulation for Constellation, the program that's going to take us back to the moon and to Mars. One of my major projects right now is based on game technology, so I usually just tell people I play video games for NASA.

Did you always want to work for NASA?
Honestly, no. As a kid I thought space stuff was cool - things like watching Apollo 13 in awe, digging up anything I could find on Mars Pathfinder, and hours of stargazing come to mind - but I never once considered that I could be part of it. It was something neat that somebody far away did, not me. I think that's why I like the idea of this project so much. Hopefully it brings the space program a little closer to a few people.

So how did you end up at NASA then?
The grace of God, I think. It's a really great story, but the short version doesn't do it justice.

Do you like it there?
I love it. I have the privilege of working with some fantastic people at one of the coolest places in the world and I'm learning a ton. I still look for the VAB (the big tall building in the movies) every morning on the drive in, and often leave excited about coming back the next day. Some tell me I'll grow out of that, but we'll see.

Do you want to be an astronaut?
For a very long time the answer to that question was no. I was grounded by fear and I knew that. My whole perspective changed one afternoon as I sat in Discovery as it sat at the pad about two weeks before launch. I lay in the seat and I began to wonder what the cockpit was like at launch. I also realized that if something went wrong at that moment I might not survive, but the overwhelming thought was, "But what a way to go...". Suddenly the uniqueness of the opportunity far outweighed the risks in my mind.

Am I going to adjust my career plan to be an astronaut? Doubtful. But if somebody came to me and said, "Hey Bec, we need to send somebody up. Will you go?" I certainly wouldn't turn them down.

That picture of [x] is awesome. Do you have a larger version?
Yep. All pictures here are taken by me unless otherwise stated, so if you see one you'd like a copy of let me know.

When are you going to visit [q]?
Honestly, I have no idea. I'm sort of making this tour up as I go. If there's somewhere specific you think would be a good place for Emma's Astronaut to visit leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

When is your next update?
Right now my goal is to take Emma's Astronaut to see something new every week. If for some reason I can't (travel, weather, scheduling, etc.) I will try to come up with something else related to space or NASA to post in place of the week's stop. Sound good?

Alright then, away we go. In 3...2...1...