Mate-Demate Device

Atlantis being mated to a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft using the MDD at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California

The Mate-Demate Device was a specialized gantry crane designed to lift a Space Shuttle orbiter onto and off the back of a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA). Two Mate-Demate Devices were built, one at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, the other at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A third Orbiter Lifting Fixture was to serve a similar function at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, the proposed West Coast launch location for the Shuttle. It was later moved to Palmdale to support the plant where the Shuttle was built and refurbished. A portible sling was also built to support operations away from the primary locations.

Armstrong Flight Research Center

The first Mate-Demate Device was located at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, California. Construction of the MDD was completed in late 1976. It was first used during mate-demate operations with the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise during the five Approach and Landing Tests in 1977.

During the Shuttle program, the Shuttle Landing Facility airport at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was the primary landing site for orbiters. However, the longer runways at Edwards were used for 11 of the first 12 missions and would be used for a total for 54 of the 135 shuttle missions. This MDD would be used to hoist an orbiter onto a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the flight back to Florida. The MDD was dismantled in 2014 following the retirement of the Space Shuttle.

Kennedy Space Center

The Mate-Demate Device at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida.

The second Mate-Demate Device was located at the Shuttle Landing Facility airport at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The MDD was located just off the southern end of the runway. Its primary use was unloading the orbiter after its cross-country flight from Edwards. However it was also used to load the orbiter onto an SCA to be taken to Palmdale for for Orbiter Maintenance Down Periods.

Orbiter Lifting Fixture

Space Shuttle Discovery testing the Orbiter Lifting Fixture at Vandenberg on November 6, 1983.

Orbiter Lifting Fixture was a scaled down version of the MDD planned for use exclusively at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was first tested by Space Shuttle Discovery during its initial delivery flight in November 1983 and was used to unload and load Space Shuttle Enterprise for pad fit checks at Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 in 1984 and 1985. Shuttle flights from the West Coast were cancelled following the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The Orbiter Lifting Fixture was relocated to United States Air Force Plant 42 where the orbiters were built in Palmdale, California, before the delivery of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1991. Previously, the orbiters were trucked to the MDD at the Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, about 36 miles (58 km) away, which took about 10 hours. The Orbiter Lifting Fixture was demolished in 2008.

Mobile MDD

Mobile Mate/Demate Device being attached to Enterprise

On the rare occasions when an orbiter needed to be loaded or unloaded at a location where no MDD was available, a pair of cranes was used instead. Prior to its use in 2012 to exchange Discovery and Enterprise, the mobile MDD had been stored for over twenty years.

Buran structures

For the Energia-Buran programme similar structures were built in the USSR, named PKU-50, PU-100 and PUA-100.

For the Buran's first flight, they were operated at LII, Baikonur Jubilee airfield, and Bezymyanka Airport.

They were capable of loading Buran (0GT cargo) or Energia components (1GT, 2GT and 3GT cargoes) on top of Myasishchev VM-T and Antonov An-225 aircraft.