fireman@tippy.uucp (09/06/89)
I know Gabrielle is predicted to miss the southeast, but how resistant is the VAB to hurricane-strength winds? And what can the shuttle take in the means of thunderstorm winds (I'm sure it would be put inside before a hurricane) while on the pad? ************************************************************************* * Rob Dale /-\ tippy!fireman * * Purdue University =+= @newton.physics * * Atmospheric Sciences \-/ .purdue.edu * *************************************************************************
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (09/08/89)
In article <11000012@tippy> fireman@tippy.uucp writes: > I know Gabrielle is predicted to miss the southeast, but how resistant >is the VAB to hurricane-strength winds? The VAB is built to take even a once-in-a-century monster hurricane. >And what can the shuttle >take in the means of thunderstorm winds (I'm sure it would be put inside >before a hurricane) while on the pad? If I recall correctly -- it's been a while -- one constraint on the transporter design was the ability to go from pad to VAB within N hours to get a Saturn under cover before a hurricane arrived, where N was not large. The pads now have a weather-protection system -- a set of sliding and folding protective panels -- which covers an orbiter pretty completely when this is desirable. If you've ever wondered why the shuttle rollout inevitably occurs in the wee small hours of the morning, by the way, it's because that is the time when surprise thunderstorms are least likely. *Between* VAB and pad, the shuttle has no weather protection, not even a lightning rod. -- V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu