First Launch Scheduled for August

By Wes Oleszewski

On Wednesday June, 3rd another in a string of modifications to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center took place. In preparation for the upcoming Ares I-X launch, scheduled to take place in late August, a Space Shuttle service component  was removed from the pad's Fixed Service Structure. 

The Gaseous Oxygen Vent Hood or GOX Hood was removed from the service tower by means of a crane. Although a critical Shuttle component GOX hood, which allows venting of the External Tank's liquid oxygen while at the same time preventing ice build-up, the hood will not be used in Ares I-X operations.

Once removed from the service structure, the GOX Hood and its swing arm were placed on trailers. The components will be trucked to a nearby storage area and kept as spares until the end of the Space Shuttle program. What will become of the components after the shuttle has been retired, has not been decided.

These modifications are a part of preparing Pad 39B for the Ares I series of launch vehicles. Future  modifications will include the removal of the Crew Access Arm and White Room. Plans eventually call for demolition of the pad's Rotating Service Structure and Fixed Service structure in order to return to the "Clean Pad" configuration that was used in the Apollo era. Noteworthy is the fact that the Fixed Service Structure itself is actually made up of the top dozen levels of an original Apollo Launch Umbilical Tower.

FMI: www.nasa.gov