philipl@bronze.UUCP (Philip Lantz) (08/03/83)
Does anyone know why they rolled it out at night? (I mean, just because the launch is at night doesn't seem to be a good enough reason... They're not on countdown yet!) Philip Lantz tekmdp!bronze!philipl
alb@alice.UUCP (08/03/83)
The main reason is that this is storm season in Flordia, and the afternoons are frequented by thunder and lightning storms. By rolling it out at night, technicians can have it bolted down and secured by the beginning of the afternoon. On that subject, NASA was asked what they would do if a hurricane hit the KSC area. The reply was that the storm would have to be ''imminently upon them ... with 70 mph winds'' before a decision to unbolt the orbiter assembly and move it back to the VAB would be made.
rjnoe@ihuxx.UUCP (08/06/83)
If a hurricane was "imminently upon" KSC, the shuttle wouldn't have time to get back into the VAB before the 70-mph winds hit. I'm assuming that you would move STS back on the crawler transporter. You COULD ignite the engines and get it back to the VAB much faster :-) ! Roger Noe ...ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe