Science and Exploration

SLS Mobile Launcher Inside VAB High Bay 3

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
September 19, 2018
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SLS Mobile Launcher Inside VAB High Bay 3
SLS Mobile Launcher Inside VAB High Bay 3
NASA

NASA’s mobile launcher is inside High Bay 3 at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Sept. 11, 2018, at NASA Kennedy Space Center.

In view are several levels of the new work platforms. One platform level has been extended around the mobile launcher tower, and the crew access arm, in view at the top, is being extended. The mobile launcher will spend seven months in the VAB undergoing testing. The 380-foot-tall structure is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to the agency’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing the ground systems necessary to launch SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1, missions to the Moon and on to Mars.

KSC-20180911-PH_FWM03_0070 Photo credit: NASA/Frank Michaux Larger image

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.