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Mate-Demate Device

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The MDD at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California mates Atlantis to a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

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 portable sling was also built to support mate-demate 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.[1] Construction of the MDD was completed in late 1976.[1] It was first used during operations with the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise during the five Approach and Landing Tests in 1977.[1]

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.[1] The MDD was dismantled in 2014 following the retirement of the Space Shuttle.[2][3]

Kennedy Space Center

The MDD 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 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.[4] 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.[4] The Orbiter Lifting Fixture was demolished in 2008.[5]

Mobile sling

Space Shuttle Enterprise being demated from the SCA at JFK airport using a sling

On the rare occasions when an orbiter needed to be loaded or unloaded at a location where permanent lifting device was not available, NASA had a special sling that could be attached to the orbiter, allowing it to be lifted by cranes. Typically a smaller crane supported the front end of the sling, while a larger crane supported the rear. To compensate for the absence of the stabilizing structure normally provided by the MDD, an arrangement of wire ropes, masts, and winches would be setup to provide stability for the suspended Orbiter/Sling combination.

The mobile sling was used multiple times early in the Shuttle program during the late seventies and mid eighties to transport Space Shuttle Enterprise for display at various locations around the world. It was also used to load Space Shuttle Columbia onto an SCA when it landed at White Sands in New Mexico at the end of STS-3 in 1982. The sling remained in storage for over twenty years for use, on standby for use to transport the shuttle in the case that it landed at one of its backup landing sites, other than Edwards. The sling was used again in 2012 to transport Discovery, Endeavour and Enterprise to museums at the conclusion of the Shuttle program.[6]

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.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "NASA Armstrong Fact Sheet: Shuttle Mate-Demate Device (MDD)". NASA. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  2. ^ "An Era Ends, but Another Begins at NASA Armstrong". NASA. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  3. ^ "NASA Armstrong's Space Shuttle Mate-Demate Device Coming Down". NASA. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  4. ^ a b "40 Years Ago: Space Shuttle Discovery Makes its Public Debut - NASA". 2023-10-16. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  5. ^ NASA.gov
  6. ^ Steven Siceloff (2011-08-04). "Teams Practice Lifting Shuttles at Airports". NASA. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  7. ^ Vadim Lukashevich (1998–2007). "Transportation of the orbital ship Buran" (in Russian). Buran.ru.
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