There's no place to pull over up there,' White said, a line he has surely used before.Īfter each flight, the orbiter's engines are removed and sent to another building to be refurbished, and the main tires are replaced. 'You know, you get a short in your car, you can pull over to the side of the road.

White explains that something as tiny as a washer could short out an electrical component in the shuttle. See what it takes to keep the shuttle fit to fly » Even the smallest item can become a problem in zero gravity. Anyone entering the building must also 'tether,' or tie eyeglasses on and tape watches to wrists to ensure that loose items are not dropped. Instead of a welcome mat, people entering the orbiter processing facility walk on a piece of sticky tape that picks up dirt and debris from the soles of their shoes. 'The minute we go into zero gravity, the astronauts are now breathing it and eating it,' said Terry White, a project lead for the United Space Alliance. There are workers who pass the day wiping down the steel structure with alcohol. The entry of dirt, dust and debris into the facility is a concern that goes by the acronym FOD, or foreign object debris. Watch a NASA astronaut talk about the upcoming launch » The vehicle is towed into the building, where it is surrounded by platforms that are several stories high, allowing access to all parts of the craft. This processing facility is a hangar where employees thoroughly inspect the orbiter. Atlantis' first launch was in 1985, and it has flown 29 times. In the orbiter processing facility, the team was readying the orbiter Atlantis, which is scheduled for flight after Discovery's mission to the international space station. CNN visited the facility recently to learn about shuttle maintenance and launch preparation. Wednesday, Kennedy Space Center employees have been busy keeping the shuttle fleet in tip-top condition. The orbiter is maintained in the OPF (orbiter processing facility) before it goes to the VAB (vehicle assembly building), where the ET (external tank) and SRBs (solid rocket boosters) are attached to it.Īs NASA prepares for the scheduled launch of the space shuttle Discovery about 9 p.m.

Orbiter processing facility