Technicians began loading Orion’s service module with oxidizer, which will power the Orbital Maneuvering System main engine and auxiliary thrusters on the European-built service module ahead of propellant loading. After servicing, these elements will be integrated with the flight components of the Space Launch System, which are being assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building. The spacecraft currently resides in Kennedy’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility alongside the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System (ICPS), the rocket’s upper stage that will send Orion to the Moon. Teams with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Exploration Ground Systems and primary contractor, Jacobs, are fueling the Orion service module ahead of the Artemis I mission. When SLS lifts off from pad 39B carrying Orion for the Artemis I mission, it will use the new, advanced mobile launcher that comes with a built-in tower.Ĭlick here to watch a time-lapse video of the MLP-2 demolition.Ī view of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. It began as an Apollo era structure, was converted for shuttle launches, and now is a clean pad ready to support the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft as the agency returns to the Moon. Launch Complex 39B also has changed with the times.
Since the retirement of the shuttle program, the historic Launch Complex 39A, once the site of Apollo and Saturn V missions, was leased to SpaceX and upgraded to support commercial launches carrying cargo and astronauts into space. These structures did not require a tower since the launch pad had a tower and rotating service structure to allow access to the vehicle. Mobile launcher platforms were used for shuttle missions lifting off from Launch Complex 39A and 39B. “However, it allows us to make room for newer, more advanced assets to support Artemis missions that will return humans to the Moon and beyond.” “It was bittersweet having to dismantle MLP-2,” said John Giles, Exploration Ground Systems crawler transporter operations manager. A nine-month demolition project for Mobile launcher platform 2, which used during the shuttle program, was recently completed. The two mobile launcher platforms are seen at the park site at Kennedy Space Center on Jan. Though MLP-2 was a historic piece of equipment, its removal makes way for newer, more advanced technology at the Florida spaceport. The mobile launcher platform 2, or MLP-2, served NASA well, as it was used for more than 50 Apollo and space shuttle missions at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center from 1968 to 2011.Ī nine-month demolition project for the 25-foot high, 160-foot long, and 135-foot-wide platform, which weighed 9.1 million pounds, was completed last month. MLP-2 was demolished, making way for newer, more advanced technology to be used in NASA’s Artemis missions. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a truck sprays water along the crawlerway to reduce dust ahead of the crawler-transporter moving the mobile launcher platform 2 (MLP-2) from Launch Pad 39A to a nearby park site in Launch Complex 39.
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