Location
Cocoa Beach, Florida
Start Date
8-1963 12:00 AM
Description
THE LAST TWO YEARS have seen the vigorous inauguration by the United States of an ambitious program for the exploration of space. This multi-pronged effort, under the direction of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is critically dependent upon the successful development of a new generation of large boosters, far greater in size than any missile or booster previously developed.
The concept of the NASA Merritt Island launch facilities and the basic principles of the test operations that will be conducted there have been discussed in a number of recent papers but the operational problems that will be encountered in the use of such facilities have ha.d little discussion and indeed it is still too early in the stage design and ground support equipment design of the Saturn V vehicle to define these problems in any detail. Using, however, the known dimensions of the Saturn V vehicle and the published characteristics of the Merritt Island Launch Area as examples, it is possible to make a general study of the nature of the operational problems that will be encountered during the testing, checkout, and launch of such large space vehicles.
Operational Problems with Large Space Boosters
Cocoa Beach, Florida
THE LAST TWO YEARS have seen the vigorous inauguration by the United States of an ambitious program for the exploration of space. This multi-pronged effort, under the direction of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is critically dependent upon the successful development of a new generation of large boosters, far greater in size than any missile or booster previously developed.
The concept of the NASA Merritt Island launch facilities and the basic principles of the test operations that will be conducted there have been discussed in a number of recent papers but the operational problems that will be encountered in the use of such facilities have ha.d little discussion and indeed it is still too early in the stage design and ground support equipment design of the Saturn V vehicle to define these problems in any detail. Using, however, the known dimensions of the Saturn V vehicle and the published characteristics of the Merritt Island Launch Area as examples, it is possible to make a general study of the nature of the operational problems that will be encountered during the testing, checkout, and launch of such large space vehicles.
