- See also: Launch tower and Gantry (rocketry)
A launch pad is the area and facilities where rockets or spacecrafts liftoff. A launch tower is constructed on the Launch pad of an unguided Rocket for the purpose of guiding the rocket until it is fast enough for aerodynamic stabilization In Rocketry, a gantry is a Service tower, a multistory frame which encloses a rocket at its Launch pad, containing elevators and staircases that enable A typical launch pad consists of the service and umbilical structures. The service structure provides an access platform to inspect the launch vehicle prior to launch. Most service structures can be moved or rotated to a safe distance. The umbilical structure has propellent loading, gas, power, and communication links to the launch vehicle. The launch vehicle sits atop of the launch platform, which has the flame deflection structure to withstand the intense heat and load generated by rocket engines during liftoff.
Most cryogenic launch vehicles need to be continuously topped off as scheduled liftoff approaches. Cryogenics is often used incorrectly to refer to Cryonics, cryopreserving humans or animals This is particularly necessary as various holds are placed on the liftoff and then removed as support personnel correct problems or verify they are not serious. Without the ability to top off the launch vehicle, the launch would have to be scrubbed when problems slowed down the countdown. A countdown is the backward counting to indicate the seconds days etc Gantries are commonly designed and constructed on launch pads to meet these types of servicing requirements both during launch and in the preparation period leading up to it. In Rocketry, a gantry is a Service tower, a multistory frame which encloses a rocket at its Launch pad, containing elevators and staircases that enable
Most rockets need stable support for a few seconds after ignition while the engines ramp up and stabilize at full thrust. A rocket or rocket vehicle is a Missile, Aircraft or other Vehicle which obtains Thrust by the reaction of the Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton 's Second and Third Laws. This stability requirement is commonly met by the use of explosive bolts to connect the launch vehicle to the pad. A pyrotechnic fastener (also called an explosive bolt, or pyro, within context is a Fastener, usually a nut or bolt that incorporates a pyrotechnic When the vehicle is stable and ready to fly the bolts explode, severing the vehicle's ties to the launch pad and structures on the ground.
Methods
There are several different types of launch site, determined by the means by which the rocket gets to the pad.
- The first large rocket, the V-2, travelled horizontally with its tail forward to the launch site at Peenemünde. See also Vergeltungswaffe The V-2 rocket ( Vergeltungswaffe 2 was the first Ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve Peenemünde (peːnəˈmʏndə is a village in the northeast of the German (Western part of the Usedom island This is the most common; it was used for all large Soviet rockets, even Buran. The Buran spacecraft ( Буран "Snowstorm" or "Blizzard") GRAU index 11F35 K1, was the only fully completed and operational
- In a similar manner, at the Soviet launch site near Volgograd, a silo used to launch test rockets would have its top opened and a second stage and payload would be driven in horizontally and tilted on top of a first stage already in the silo, the nose cone and some of the second stage remaining visible above ground. Hence no surface pad is used; Russian silos are reusable. This method was only used for the Cosmos series of small satellite launching vehicles.
- Rockets launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 (Space Shuttle and, in the past, Saturn V and Saturn IB) are set up vertically in the Vehicle Assembly Building on a Mobile Launcher Platform which sets on top of a Crawler-Transporter, which slowly drives to the launch site. The John F Kennedy Space Center ( KSC) is the NASA Space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center ( Spaceport) on Launch Complex 39 (LC-39 is a Rocket launch site at the John F NASA 's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System ( STS) is the Spacecraft currently used by the United States The Saturn V (pronounced 'Saturn Five' popularly known as the Moon Rocket was a multistage liquid-fuel expendable Rocket used by NASA 's The Saturn IB was an uprated version of the Saturn I, which featured a much more powerful second stage the S-IVB. VABConstructionjpg|thumbnail|right|VAB during its early steel construction phase (1963 along with the Mobile Launcher Platform and tower assemblies for the Saturn V rocket The Mobile Launcher Platform or MLP is a two-story structure used by NASA, along with the Crawler-Transporter, to transport the Space Shuttle The crawler-transporter is a tracked Vehicle used to transport the Saturn V Rocket, the Saturn IB rocket during Skylab A similar system is used at ELA-3 at Guiana Space Centre, a French spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. ELA-3, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 3 ( French for Ariane Launch Area 3 is a Launch pad and associated facilities at the Centre Spatial The Guiana Space Centre, or more commonly Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG is a French Spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. Kourou is a town and commune in French Guiana, an overseas ''région'' and ''département'' of France located in South America French Guiana (Guyane française officially fr ''Guyane'' is an Overseas department (French département d'outre-mer, or DOM) of France
- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, two parallel standard gauge railroad tracks were used to transport the Titan launch vehicle and its mobile launcher platform from the integration building to the launch areas at Complex 40 and 41, and continue to be used for the Atlas V.
- In the 1920s, Hermann Oberth described a method in which the rocket is assembled vertically on a floating barge, which he used in the movie Frau im Mond. Hermann Julius Oberth ( June 25, 1894 &ndash December 28, 1989) was a Austro-Hungarian -born German ( Transylvanian This has never been used, although it was seriously considered for use at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 for the Saturn V. It was rejected for that application due to the instability of the top-heavy unfuelled rocket and gantry.
- At Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, the Titan series of rockets were set up vertically in a gantry in a windowless building at SLC-4, the outside walls of which would be rolled away just at launch. Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States military installation with a Spaceport, in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Titan was a family of US expendable Rockets used between 1959 and 2005 This was done for purposes of military secrecy. Similar systems are used at SLC-6 and LC37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for the Delta IV rocket, ELA-1 & 2 at CSG for the Ariane 1-4, and Kagoshima for the M-V. Space Launch Complex-6 ( SLC-6, nicknamed "Slick Six" at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was a launch pad and support area designed Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 37 ( LC-37) is a launch complex at Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Delta IV is a family of Delta Rockets designed by Boeing 's Integrated Defense Systems division and built in United Launch Alliance's ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 ( French for Ariane Launch Area 1 also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and This article is about the rocket developed by the European Space Agency. is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture at the southwestern tip of the Kyūshū island of Japan, and the largest city in the prefecture by some The M-V rocket also called M-5 or Mu-5, was a Japanese Solid-fuel rocket designed to launch scientific Satellites It was
- Zenit 3SL rockets of Sea Launch are transported horizontally by sea aboard the Ocean Odyssey converted oil rig, which is then used to erect and launch them.
- Dnepr rockets are transported vertically and then inserted into a silo. The Dnepr rocket (Дніпро Dnipro; Днепр Dnepr) is a space Launch vehicle named after the Dnieper River.
See also
In Spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a Rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into Outer space. A pad abort test is a test of a Launch escape system to determine how well the system could get the crew of a Spacecraft to safety in an emergency on the Launch Non-rocket spacelaunch (NRS is the idea of reaching outer space specifically from the Earth's surface predominately without the use of conventional chemical rockets which today A rocket launch is the first phase of the flight of a Rocket.Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic