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Space Shuttle Discovery, continued
Discovery on the launch pad
After the orbiter is assembled with the External Tank and the Solid Rocket Boosters, it is rolled out to the launch pad on the Crawler/Transporter. This massive vehicle was used during the Apollo program and then retrofitted for Shuttle.
The massive 'crawler' that transports the shuttle to the launch pad.
This vehicle moves at about 1 mile per hour and is about three stories tall.
Full Size
View from the launchpad onto the Shuttle. The tunnel going from
center to the right of the image is the walkway that the Astronauts use
to board the spacecraft. Full Size
View from the walkway on the launch pad.
At times you are several hundred feet above the ground, and when you look down, you can see all the way to the ground. Since your eyes focus to the ground several hundred feet away, the metal grating that you are standing on seems to disapear and it is almost as if you are floating and falling thru the air. When I walk along the pad I have to keep my eyes straight ahead or I get really uncomfortable.
Standing in the access hatch to the Shuttle in the 'White Room'.
This is the room at the end of the walkway to the Shuttle.
The big white balloon on the left is the cover of the hatch. Full Size
This NASA logo is known as the 'meatball', and was
recently painted onto Discovery just for this mission.
The one on the left is the large logo on the wing,
the smaller one on the right is on the port side of the spacecraft. Full Size
- Seat of the flight commander.
- Shuttle main console.
- Seat of the pilot.
- By the noseof the shuttle.
- View from above the crew cabin walkway.
- View from the Mobile Launch Platform.
- The access way to the crew cabin.
- Hatch to the cargo bay.
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