From Apollo to Space Shuttle
Shortly after Skylab launched, modifications to the pad
began for the next step in our continuing exploration of
space. The Space Shuttle program had been approved
before the Apollo missions were even finished. In fact, Apollo
16 Commander John Young and his Lunar Module Pilot
Charlie Duke were walking on the surface when word came
up from Mission Control that the budget had passed, includ-
ing the vote for the Space Shuttle program.
The Shuttle would be a totally different vehicle than the
mighty Saturn V and Saturn 1B rockets that had flown from
Launch Complex 39 up until now. While the new vehicle
would be less than two thirds the height of the Saturn V, its
design required a complete reconfiguration of the pad struc-
ture and the mobile launcher. A lot of work on the ground
had to take place before the Shuttle would ever fly.
The pad would now be the permanent site for the umbili-
cal tower, or as it was now called the Fixed Service Structure
(FSS). This was not a completely new structure however, the
upper portion of Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) that Apollo
used was removed from the Mobile Platform and installed
on the Launch Pad 39A’s hardstand to become the FSS.
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facility would be distributed from. Dissecting the east and
west sides is the 58 foot wide, 450 foot long, Flame Trench.
A Flame Deflector, weighing some 700 tons, would be rolled
into place via a rail system in the Flame Trench until it was just
under the rocket. The deflector directed the flames down the
trench and away from the vehicle and pad.
Also located inside of the pad area is a blast room. If a
hazardous condition came up that required the Apollo
astronauts to egress from the spacecraft, they would move
from the spacecraft back to the Mobile Launcher’s tower
and ride the high speed elevator down 30 stories, in about 30
seconds. Then they would slide down an escape tube to the
blast room. The blast room has thick steel doors which could
withstand the explosion if the vehicle erupted on the pad.
The crew could survive for at least 24 hours in the blast room
until they could be rescued.
The first flight from Pad 39A would be Apollo 4, an
unmanned test of the great Saturn V rocket. Following it
would be another unmanned test, Apollo 6. The third launch
was the historic first trip to the moon, Apollo 8, which took
Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders on a trip to the
moon where they did 10 orbits before coming back to Earth.
And the fifth launch from Pad 39A would be Apollo 11, the
first manned Lunar landing when Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin became the first human beings to step on another
space body. Pad 39A would be the starting point for every
Saturn V mission except for Apollo 10 which launched from
Pad 39B. Twelve flights of the Saturn V started at Pad 39A
and half of them were the manned lunar landing missions.
The pad’s significance as a historical landmark will never be
in question due to the fact the first manned landing missions
to the Moon all began there. It also served as the launch
pad for the Skylab orbiting outpost – our first space station –
which was also the last flight of the Saturn V rocket and the
last mission to launch from Pad 39A for more than six years.
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