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Mobile Launch Platform (MLP) , KSC Narrated

Kennedy Space Center The Mobile Launchers used for Saturn V From 1967 to 2011, three platforms were used at the LC-39 to support NASA's launch vehicles. Formerly called Mobile Launchers (ML), the mobile launcher platforms were constructed for transporting and launching the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo program lunar landing missions of the 1960s and 1970s. Each ML originally had a single exhaust vent for the Saturn V's engines. The Mobile Launchers also featured a 380-foot-tall (120 m) Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) with nine swing arms that permitted servicing of the vehicle on the launch pad, and swung away from it at launch. The Mobile Launchers were built by Ingalls Iron Works. The swing arms were constructed by Hayes International. After the Apollo program, the bases of the Mobile Launchers were modified for the Space Shuttle. The Launch Umbilical Towers from ML-2 and ML-3 were removed. Portions of these tower structures were erected at the two launch pads, 39A and 39B. These permanent structures were known as the Fixed Service Structures (FSS). The LUT from ML-1 was taken apart and stored in the Kennedy Space Center's industrial area. Efforts to preserve the LUT in the 1990s failed due to a lack of funding, and it was scrapped. In addition to removal of the umbilical towers, each Shuttle-era MLP was extensively reconfigured with the addition of two Tail Service Masts (TSM), one on either side of the main engine exhaust vent. These 9.4 m (31 ft) masts contained the feed lines through which liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) were loaded into the shuttle's external fuel tank, as well as electrical hookups and flares that were used to burn off any ambient hydrogen vapors at the launch site immediately prior to Main Engine start. The main engines vented their exhaust through the original opening used for the Saturn rocket exhaust. Two additional exhaust ports were added to vent exhaust from the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) that flanked the external fuel tank. The Space Shuttle assembly was held to the MLP at eight holddown points using large studs, four on the aft skirt of each Solid Rocket Booster. Immediately before SRB ignition, frangible nuts attached to the top of these studs were detonated, releasing the Shuttle assembly from the platform. Each MLP weighed 8.23 million pounds (3,730 tonnes) unloaded and roughly 11 million pounds (5,000 tonnes) with an unfueled Shuttle aboard, measured 160 by 135 feet (49 by 41 m), and was 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They were carried by one of two crawler-transporters (CT), which measure 131 by 114 feet (40 by 35 m), and 20 feet (6.1 m) high. Each crawler weighs about 6 million pounds (2,700 tonnes) unloaded, has a maximum speed of about 1 mile per hour (1.6 km/h) loaded, and has a leveling system designed to keep the launch vehicle vertical while negotiating the 5 percent grade leading to the top of the launch pad. Two 2,750 horsepower (2.05 MW) diesel engines power each crawler. The MLPs were designed as part of NASA's strategy for vertical assembly and transport of space vehicles. Vertical as The Space Shuttle Atlantis is carried atop the MLP-1 in the lead-up to STS-79 Construction of the Mobile Launcher Platform-1 (MLP-1) (formerly called the Mobile Launcher-3 or ML-3) began in 1964 and was completed with the installation of the Launch Umbilical Tower hammerhead crane on 1 March 1965. The swing arms were added at a later date. The ML-3 was used for five crewed Apollo launches; Apollo 10, Apollo 13, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. Following the launch of Apollo 17, the ML-3 was the first of the Mobile Launchers to be converted for use by the Space Shuttle. The Launch Umbilical Tower was dismantled and later partially reassembled on LC-39A as that pad's Fixed Service Structure (FSS) and the base of the launch platform was modified to accommodate the locations of engines on the Shuttle. The platform was redesignated MLP-1. In total, the MLP-1 was used for 52 Shuttle l Mobile Launcher Platform-2 (MLP-2) (formerly called the Mobile Launcher-2 or ML-2) was used for the uncrewed Apollo 6 mission, followed by three crewed Apollo launches.