With more than one million parts on the Space Shuttle, the timely delivery of the required components, materials, tools, equipment, and sub-contracted services is essential to flight safety and mission success. Responsibility for the tracking, manufacturing, repairing and transporting of each of those 1 million parts belongs to USAΓÇÖs Integrated Logistics organization.
Located in the City of Cape Canaveral, the NASA Shuttle Logistics Depot is the focal point for the repair and manufacturing of parts used on the Space Shuttle Orbiters. The entire NSLD complex encompasses eight buildings with more than 290,000 square feet of space. The DepotΓÇÖs goal is to shorten the pipeline for repairs, thus reducing the number of spares needed for the vehicles. Technicians at NSLD complete about 80 percent of the hardware repair tasks, 90 percent of which is done realtime.
Key components of NSLD include the Avionics/Electronics Lab, a state of the art facility whose work has include avionics hardware ranging from cables to analog, digital and Rf electronics; the Mechanical Manufacturing and Repair Shop, a large capacity machine shop that produces or repairs small precision parts to the large complex components; and the Materials and Processes Lab which performs a broad spectrum of non-destructive tests with advanced equipment.
NSLDΓÇÖs capabilities also include resources at several satellite facilities including the Far Field Antenna Range and the Hypergolic Maintenance Facility, both at the Kennedy Space Center; and the Lithium Hydroxide (LiOH) Lab at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Also on site at the Kennedy Space Center is the Logistics Building, a 324,640 square-foot facility located south of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The facility houses 190,000 space shuttle hardware parts and includes a state-of-the-art parts retrieval system, which contains automated handling equipment to find and retrieve specific Space Shuttle parts.
Another key function of the Integrated Logistics operation is the manufacturing and repair of the heat-resistant tiles and thermal blankets that shield the Orbiter from the deep cold and intense heat of space. This work is completed at the Thermal Protection System Facility (TPSF) located on-site at KSC. A two-story, 44,000-square-foot building located directly across from the Orbiter Processing Facility Bays 1 and 2, the TPSF houses the personnel and equipment needed to produce and refurbish the some 24,000 tiles, 2,300 Flexible Insulation Blankets, 5,400 Thermal Control System Blankets, 1,860 square feet of Felt Reusable Surface Insulation and other materials which protect the Orbiter.
In recent years, the NSLD has serviced multiple programs besides the Space Shuttle including the International Space Station, various payloads and NASAΓÇÖs X-vehicles.
