It took five hours to get just under a mile, but the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter built by Teledyne Brown Engineering for NASA’s Space Launch System moved in August from Marshall Space Flight Center’s weld facility to a new building where it will be outfitted with thermal foam.
The 30-foot-tall section of space hardware was moved by truck on a stand built specifically for it by Teledyne Brown. The conical section connects the core stage of the SLS rocket with its upper stage.
“This is an effort of great magnitude physically and programmatically for our company and for Marshall Space Flight Center, ” says Teledyne Brown President Jan Hess. “LVSA is the largest piece of a rocket to be manufactured at Marshall in Huntsville since the Apollo era.”
At the new location, the section will be outfitted with thermal foam insulation. It will be the largest structure to be manually sprayed at Marshall with this type of foam. Engineers will then fit it with cabling, electrical interface panels, sensors, cameras, duct work, acoustic blankets, access doors and quick disconnects, all in preparation for the vehicle’s eventual launch set for 2019.
Text by Dave Helms
