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KENNEDY  SPACE  CENTER

Traditional Center Roles and Missions

Carved out of virgin savannah and marsh in the early 1960s
as the departure point for Project Apollo's manned
explorations of the Moon, the John F. Kennedy Space Center
(KSC) has primary responsibility for ground turnaround and
support operations, pre-launch checkout and launch of the
Space Shuttle and its payloads, including those of Space
Station Freedom.

This responsibility extends to Space Transportation System
(STS) operations, including the construction and maintenance
of STS payload and flight element processing facilities, and
the development of ground operations management, processing
schedules and logistics, and their use in support of the STS
and payloads.  The construction of a Space Station
Processing Facility is scheduled to begin in January of
1990.

Kennedy Space Center responsibility also extends to the
facilities and ground operations at Vandenberg Air Force
Base (VAFB) in California and designated contingency landing
sites.

Shortly after President John F. Kennedy announced bold plans
in 1961 to fly American astronauts to the Moon and return
them safely by the end of the decade, Congress approved
development of a strip of marsh and sandy scrub 34 miles
long and five to ten miles wide on Florida's east coast,
midway between Jacksonville and Miami.  The "space coast" of
Florida has long been determined ideal for launches and
landings.  The Atlantic Missile Range was built at Cape
Canaveral, adjacent to the northern part of Merritt Island
where KSC is now located.   Later the Cape Canaveral
peninsula became the Eastern Test Range where both Mercury
and Gemini Spacecraft where launched.  NASA began acquiring
land across the Banana River from Cape Canaveral in 1962.
By 1967, Complex 39 was operational, and the new space
center was variously known as Cape Kennedy, Cape Canaveral,
and the Cape.

Complex 39 is strategically located next to a barge site and
soon consisted of a variety of structures including a
vehicle assembly building, processing facilities, press
site, crawlways to various launch pads and the launch
control center.  The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is
described as the "heart" of Complex 39.  This huge building,
covering eight acres and standing 525 feet tall, is used for
assembly, stacking and mating of rockets and orbiters.  The
Launch Control Center (LCC) is described as the "brain" of
Complex 39.  Launch, mission support and loading are
controlled here.

Twelve manned and unmanned Saturn V/Apollo missions were
launched from "the Cape" between 1967 and 1972, and in 1973
the Skylab space station was placed into high-circular
orbit, followed by three-member crews aboard Saturns later
that year to tend the station.  The Saturn/Apollo era ended
in 1975 with the launch of a Saturn IV/Apollo crew on a
joint manned mission with the Soviet Union.  Earlier, in
1972, KSC was selected as the primary launch and landing
site for the Space Shuttle  because of its existing
facilities and structures.

A three-mile Shuttle Landing Facility and an Orbiter
Processing Facility were built, and the
Orbital Flight Test Program began at KSC in 1979.  Within
three years, KSC launched the STS four times.  The
Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System was tested, and
both government-sponsored and commercial experiments were
conducted in the payload bay on a Spacelab pallet.


The current phase, commencing in 1982, is called the STS
Operational Period for KSC. The European-built Spacelab was
flown within 18 months, plus a variety of observational,
scientific and communications payloads.  By 1983, KSC was
involved with parallel processing of three Shuttle orbiters
for the STS.  Today KSC continues lead responsibility for
Shuttle integration and rollout, cargo processing, launch
pad operations and Shuttle recovery.  With the launch of
STS-26, the Discovery Orbiter, KSC resumes its primary role
with the Space Shuttle and continues its launch capability
of unmanned rockets as America prepares to enter the space
station era.


KENNEDY  SPACE  CENTER


Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF)

By March of 1994, Kennedy Space Center plans operational
readiness for a $68.74 million Space Station Processing
Facility (SSPF).  Construction begins in January of 1990.

The SSPF will be a 264,000 square foot building designed
especially for the processing of Space Station Freedom
payloads to be launched by multiple Space Shuttles in the
cargo bay.

Flight elements arrive at KSC by various means, including a
C-5B, currently being modified by the U.S. Air Force to
carry Shuttle payloads.  A mobile transporter moves the
hardware to the SSPF where it is removed from shipping
containers, inspected and serviced in preparation for
power-up testing, if necessary.  Some flight elements, such
as the basic truss structure, are "ship and shoot" items,
requiring little KSC testing or processing.  Other elements,
such as pressurized modules, will require full functional
testing at the SSPF.  Specific processing steps are being
selected from capabilities appropriate for each flight
element.

Generally, each flight element follows a four-part handling
in the SSPF.  First, post shipment verification is conducted
by inspecting the quantity and condition of each package.
Accompanying data packages are reviewed, and problems or
discrepancies are documented.  The flight elements are
serviced by filling, purging, sampling and leak-testing all
fluid and gas containers.  Ground support equipment is
connected and the system is powered up to detect shipping
damage or defects.  Finally, the Interface Test, the most
critical of all, is conducted.

Current planning indicates that each element will be tested
for exact interface with all other pertinent elements by the
use of simulation.  The interface test includes functional
verification of one work package to the others, then
functional verification of the on-orbit configuration.
Verification of critical interfaces, and verification of the
on-orbit installation sequence are performed.  Possible
other tasks include verification of interfaces between the
on-orbit station and the Orbiter flight decks, and
verification of on-orbit assembly procedures involving the
astronauts.

Subtasks of the Interface Test involve international
partners, communications and software systems.  Functional
verification of the space station core systems and the
Canadian, Japanese and European elements are required to
assure compatibility and critical interfaces.  Major
concerns are fire detection and suppression, environmental
control and life support systems, and auxiliary power.

Two separate tests will verify the Space Station Information
System (SSIS).  One test will verify the compatibility of
SSIS hardware and software, confirm SSIS operational
procedures and validate the software for the Space Station
Control Center which will command and monitor the core
systems of the space station.  Another test verifies the
end-to-end interfaces between experiments and their Payload
Operations Control Centers scattered throughout the nation
and across the oceans at the international partner centers.

Finally, flight software load and verification are handled
in the SSPF.  Tests are performed to verify that flight
software and hardware are compatible and correctly
installed.

After all this testing, fluids and gases are prepared for
flight, switches are reset, non-flight items are removed,
and the flight elements are packaged for launch.  Crew
members may participate so they can determine the best
methods of unpacking once they are aboard Space Station
Freedom.

Upon return of the Shuttle from orbit, user payloads are
removed at the SSPF and routed to international,
governmental and private users.  Logistics modules are
refurbished and refilled for the next flight to the station.
An estimated 20,000 orbital replacement line items will be
handled at KSC for logistical purposes aboard the space
station.  Non-hazardous station elements will be processed
at the SSPF.  Such items as gaseous oxygen and hydrogen will
be loaded on modules at the hazardous processing facility.

KENNEDY  SPACE  CENTER


Space Station Freedom Unique Activities

Once the space station elements and systems are manufactured
and tested by either the NASA Work Package Centers, their
contractors or international partners, all roads lead to the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  The various shipments are
off-loaded at KSC for receiving and inspection in the
proposed Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF).  There
the space station elements, systems and user payloads to be
launched by the Space Shuttle are inspected and monitored
for damage or leaks.  All structural and mechanical parts
are reviewed for safety, verification and interface with
elements or systems from other Centers and partners.  Both
hardware and software are verified for post-shipment health,
fit and functionality. Pressure, temperature and humidity
are evaluated, and some assembly may take place there
before the payload is placed
into a canister for transport.

Ground processing of logistics elements is critical to Space
Station Freedom operations.  Three types of logistics
carriers are designed for the station, supplied and
resupplied by the ground crew at KSC.  A pressurized
logistics module will carry hardware and consumables in a
benign temporary storage facility, accessible in orbit
without EVA equipment.  A fluids pallet handles the resupply
of consumables for the on-orbit Environmental Control and
Life Support System, laboratories and satellite servicing.
An unpressurized cargo pallet carries tools, equipment and
supplies.  Each of these is loaded into the canister for
transportation and installation in the Shuttle cargo bay at
KSC and off-loaded after return for refurbishing and
resupply in the Space Station Processing Facility.  Users
are expected to provide payload-peculiar Ground Support
Equipment (GSE) and technical data documentation.  All
international and domestic users must ensure interface
compatibility of their equipment.  Interface and
verification of payload-to-station and station-to-Shuttle
are required before canisters leave the Space Station
Processing Facility.

Hazardous payloads, such as those containing fuel or power
cells, are trucked to the Hazardous Processing Facility at
KSC for servicing.  Other station-related facilities include
the Logistics Facility at KSC and the Payload Processing
Facility at the Vandenburg Launch Site.

Eventually, the various space station payloads end up at the
Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Complex 39, the heart of
KSC.  The VAB covers eight full acres and stands 525 feet
high, one of the largest buildings in the world.  Here the
solid rocket boosters are stacked and mated to the Space
Shuttle orbiter.  The environmentally controlled payload
canisters arrive at the VAB on a 48-wheel, self-propelled
truck, able to move forward, backward, sideways and
diagonally.  The cannister containing the payload is rotated
to a vertical position and carried out to the launch pad.

The orbiter and attached rockets are moved to the launch pad
in a vertical position.  They are carried by a crawler with
four double-track drives, each 10 feet high and 41 feet
long.  They travel along a roadway as broad as an eight-lane
turnpike at about two miles per hour.  The upright payload
canister follows later, after the Shuttle propulsion and
rockets are tested.  At the launch pad, the Space Station
Freedom payload is installed in the Orbiter as KSC personnel
verify the interface before  closeout.

Nominal postlanding processing follows roughly the same
procedure in reverse.  The Shuttle payload from Space
Station Freedom is transported to the Space Station
Processing Facility after the Orbiter has been inspected and
the flight systems hardware removed.  At the SSPF, Kennedy
Space Center workers examine the payload and return the
experiments or products to the users.  The reusable flight
systems hardware, such as spools, dispensers and pallets,
are refurbished and tested for the next flight to Space
Station Freedom.

Currently, STS flights to the station are scheduled over a
period of four years, with elements being flown in a "phased
construction" approach to space station assembly.   Payload
processing can begin from one year to six months before
flight.  At any one time, pay-loads for four separate
flights can be processed.

KENNEDY  SPACE   CENTER

Space Station Freedom Projects Office

Until the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) is built
at Kennedy Space Center, the KSC Space Station Projects
Office  is devoted
to systems engineering and integration, ground support
equipment management, operations
and customer support, project control and logistics systems.
The SSPO Manager reports to the Space Station Program Office
in Reston, Virginia.


Because NASA has overall responsibility for the integration
of both international and U.S. elements and systems with the
National Space Transportation System, Kennedy will be the
focal point for pre-launch and launch activities.
Technicians from Japan, Canada and ESA will provide
technical and hands-on support for the  integration of
international elements at the KSC Space Station Projects
Office.


The KSC Space Station Freedom test teams will provide launch
site  final acceptance testing and certification of
facilities at science and technology centers, if requested.
Launch site testing is designed to verify major interfaces,
provide confidence tests of critical systems, and verify
end-to-end operations between the flight elements and ground
control centers.


The KSC processing team is also responsible for the resupply
of the fluids, supplies and hardware that require early
access to the Orbiter cargo bay upon return.  Less critical
items, such as experiment racks and specimens are off-loaded
at the SSPF and routed to users.