HOWTO launch-prep the Space Shuttle

Here's a kick-ass gallery of a NASA refurb/prep procedure for the Space Shuttle. KOMPRESSOR LIKE BIG MACHINES. Link (Thanks, Spider!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Gadgets • Happy Mutants • Old school • Science

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Anonymous

Speaking of hidden text that may or may not be a joke – stenciled on the side of the yellow rocket-cone forklift thingy is the word “ROCKETDYKE”
strider_mt2k

Good luck with finding that clue as well.
(Who posts in the comments section of a completely unrelated post to beg others to do research for them, honestly?) Wacky ass internet.

Anyhoo,
I envy these folks for the work they get to do.

I mean how many folks get to drop prepped engines into a working spacecraft?

Awesome stuff.
haaz

KOMPRESSOR TAKE YOUR O-RING
KOMPRESSOR TAKE YOUR FUEL
KOMPRESSOR NEED NO OXYGEN BECAUSE
KOMPRESSOR IS IN SPACE!

(yaaaaH!)
Blackwell

Steampunk strap-on?
Cefeida

And only six minutes in between the spam :P. Well done.

Those pictures are amazing. I’ll never wonder if sci-fi movies overdesign their spacecraft again.
doublethink

That crawler is crazy awesome. And look at how shabby Discovery looks in that one shot of it hanging in the sling. It looks like tiles are falling off and the whole thing looks scorched.
wdoud

Kick-ass?!?! This term is way overused on BB. Writers should have more adjectives at their disposal.
bcdm

Of course, Kompressor prefers vitamins. But big machines will do in a pinch.
Jeff

Wdoud: That would be awesome! Awesome to the Max!
PukeBazooka

Space travel is super sweet.
Nato Welch

What do you do in your 501′s?
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Unbelievable, I sympathize, but you really couldn’t have been more off-topic, and it sets a bad precedent. Fb, V qvfrzibjryyrq vg — n qnl yngre.

Click on the eyeball next to your comment and send me email describing your problems with the search function. That’ll give me something I can forward to the tech guys.
Gursky

I love that these are on the BMW sport touring forums. Feels very nineties net.
maoinhibitor

The picture of the woman fitting the shuttle engine looks like it was taken out of a Love and Rockets Mechanix story! What a cool job!
airshowfan

Apparently Florida does not have laws requiring the use of hands-free headsets for talking on your cell phone while driving multi-ton liquid-fuel rocket engines into manned spacecraft… (Look closely at picture above) ;]
hellhead

Really gives you a sense of perspective the picture of her loading those engines.

They look a lot smaller next to the bigger rockets. Enormous.
magista

I got this passed around in an e-mail some time in late 2007. It really is an inspiring look at the scale of things.

My only real quibble is that it’s not the Vertical Assembly Building, it’s the Vehicle Assembly Building. Where they are assembled vertically, though…
dculberson

@Anon 22: That says “Rocketdyne,” the company that makes the engines. While that is a great name, Rocketdyke is very cool for a completely different reason.
Anonymous

It should be noted that all of these images may also be found at http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/
eain

Anyone notice the warning on the OMS engine in this pic?

“DANGER
DO NOT ENTER
O2 DEFICIENT AREA”

Seems like someone at NASA has a sense of humor…
Neon Tooth

Hey Melba whaddya up to?

Ehhh, you know, same old work stuff.

Do you and Chuck want to come by for dinner tomorrow.

Sure, sounds good.

Alright, see ya then…
Anonymous

@#14:
No shortage of silly humor throughout NASA. See for example this strut here:
http://space.balettie.com/PersonalSpacePix.html

The other strut reads “Lefty loosy, righty tighty” or some such. And no I’m not kidding.
unbelievable

@strider_mt2k

The reason I posted here is because I whilst I love BoingBoing I find it impossible to ever find anything that’s been posted here using the search engine. So I’m sorry if I offended you. I did apologise. Twice.
Anonymous

There was a Discovery channel type documentary that went into many of these processes from the time it lands to back on the launch pad (most programs only go over the flight time) — i wish i could find it.
sabik

@eain, I suspect that’s not a sense of humour but a real warning…

NASA has had two deaths in 1981 when a group of workers entered an area that was O2-deficient (namely, it was being purged with pure nitrogen).
dagoon86

Wow, those pics are amazing. I should check if there are some pics about space shuttle building in other countries.

Also, a more compact collection of those pictures: http://www.mahshelf.com/book/188
highjumpman

Awesome! I used to love them shuttles when I was a kid! They were also kinda new back then…
Elysianartist

Yeeessshhhh….. When the orbiter is hanging from the cable/crane thingie it looks like it could just drop at any second and shatter into lots and lots of little spaceshippy bits.
Anonymous

wonderful..our space program hinges on a chick
with a ponytail and jeans riding a rocket engine
into place—this is the sort of stuff they should have on the tv news–