Just noticed something about the KSC

[Guest]

Imagine, you press "Launch" in VAB and crawler slowly carries your rocket to the pad ... it would be impressive ... first 10 times.

[RainDreamer]

Which makes me think...where are all the fancy underground facilities that launch rockets by rising it up from a hidden silo (like the one trailer with jeb junkyard)? That would looks awesome for KSC.

[Taki117]

But why would they need so many at once?

Conspiracy time

The original plan was to launch about 20 Saturn Vs a year. There were going to be 4 pads, 4 sections to the VAB and 4 launch control centers. Apollo 10 was the only Apollo mission that left from the West side of the VAB and used LC-39B. This was because preparations for the Apollo 11 launch was scheduled to occur almost immediately after at LC-39A.

[John FX]

Imagine, you press "Launch" in VAB and crawler slowly carries your rocket to the pad ... it would be impressive ... first 10 times.

That's how I play. I use Kerbal Construction Time and you have to wait a few hours for rollout. If that was actually shown as the craft you built going to the pad on a crawler, well that would be awesome.

[Ten Key]

Which makes me think...where are all the fancy underground facilities that launch rockets by rising it up from a hidden silo (like the one trailer with jeb junkyard)? That would looks awesome for KSC.

Building underground doesn't work so well in Florida. You usually only have to dig down a few feet before you hit the water table.

[brdavis]

Given some of the interest here… yeah, visiting the "real" VAB is an amazing experience. A while ago they opened up both the VAB and one of the Complex 39 pads to tours… we were on the 2nd one . I did capture some shots of the inside of the VAB, which really doesn't begin to do it justice, but here are three I could find rapidly (because they're photos hoped together).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21675071@N08/16654470292/

Here's a view into one of the four Highbays, showing the Shuttle Atlantis as an almost afterthought on the floor. Atlantis was back from her last mission, and was stored here prior to being rolled into the OPF, so what you see was a flight-ready shuttle on the floor of the VAB… for the last time.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21675071@N08/16655493365/

This is a view down the central Transfer Aisle: this is where parts would come in before being lifted up and over into the four Highbays to be assembled. This cavernous space runs the length of the VAB within it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21675071@N08/16467917788/

View of one wall of the VAB Transfer Aisle. This shows slightly better the interior structure… and just how much Kerbal gets right about the inside details. Yes, they do have trucks that can drive around inside, but the VAB is not just one big open space like in the game. You could never build your flying pack cakes here for real .

Somewhere I have lots and LOTS of pictures, but for those of you who haven't had the privilege, yep they get an awful lot right(ish) about KSC. The one thing they don't is the amount of damage the Pad 39 complex fences took from flying debris during launches… those flame trenches shot right out to the perimeter fence. When you drive inside the fence, you can see the amount of ET foam embedded in it still… and wonder how much got picked up later, and how much is just sitting out in the swamp outside the fence.

KSC… the real one… is an amazing place.

Edit: yeah, I suck at embedding images. Those were from Flicker, and it doesn't seem to be working, so I tossed in the URLs. Sorry.

[RainDreamer]

Building underground doesn't work so well in Florida. You usually only have to dig down a few feet before you hit the water table.

I was thinking about the in-game KSC. XP

Though they are also near a body of water, so the ground there might not be that good for underground construction.

-post-

Links didn't work for me either.

[Tank Buddy]

never realized that therewas 2 doors for 2 rockets... man that bulding is huuuuuuuge:confused:

I visited KSC last spring. The VAB is waaaay bigger than it looks in any picture. Here's something from the wiki:

Air in the building can be completely replaced every hour. The interior volume of the building is so vast that it has its own weather, including "rain clouds form[ing] below the ceiling on very humid days", which the moisture reduction systems are designed to minimize.

Located on Florida's Atlantic coast, the building was constructed to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms with a foundation consisting of 30,000 cubic yards of concrete and 4,225 steel rods driven 160 feet into limestone bedrock.

A truly impressive construction.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Tank Buddy

[Voidryder]

I remember visiting it back in the days of Apollo. You just have to see it to believe it. Pictures just can't give you the true feeling of its size.

[merendel]

never realized that therewas 2 doors for 2 rockets... man that bulding is huuuuuuuge:confused:

Alot of rockets look deceptively small because we rarely see pictures that give us a good perspective. The falcon 9 is something like 14 stories tall with just the first stage that they are trying to return yet does not look that big in the launch videos because everything else around it is also huge.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

It's so huge, it has its own weather inside Seriously, sometimes rain is falling inside the VAB, because water vapor is condensing near the ceiling.

I'm not surprised.

It used to rain inside my 5.6 x 5.6m x 2.7m tin shed on a frosty morning with clear skies.

[Gargamel]

This is why KSP is so awesome. Makes us appreciate the real thing even that much more. This whole thread makes me go yay! Or it could be the acetone fumes..... not sure though....

[IllicitMedic]

Only slightly off topic: why is it Launch Complex 34? What happened to the other 33?

Look at KSC from Google Earth, they are all still there. South of the main 2.

[Renegrade]

I also didn't realize how huge a Shuttle Orbiter was. An Apollo CSM of the same scale fits in the payload bay just fine.

The Orbiter is a huge blob. If you stripped it down to just the launching bits (the SSMEs, EFT and SRBs), you could send an Apollo-sized mission to the Moon with it. The Orbiter itself is like a hundred metric tons (or 'tonnes' if you prefer) - plus it can carry 24 metric ton payload. Which is roughly the amount the Saturn V can put into LEO. The SSMEs are.. uh 8t extra in that, but the TLI portion wouldn't have to bring a half empty third stage S-IVB tank with it.

I've always considered it to be the big bloaty SUV of space vehicles. The 'reusable with only minor refurbishment' concept was a good one, but the Space Shuttle fell way short of designs specs in regard to 'minor refurbishment', so it just ended up being a HUGE dry mass. :/

(a huge pain in the.. dry mass? )

[Vindaloo]

Errrm....It's the actual KSC. Kennedy Space Center.

I know, I was trying to be funny... I think I missed the mark.