Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B Construction Photos

Page 45

GOX Arm Lift 4 (Original Scan)


And now I'm up on the FSS looking at the work from just above where it's being done, as the arm is pulled back in to the tower and the ironworkers go hands-on with it.




Top Left: (Full-size)

As the crew of ironworkers continued to prepare for the final steps of connecting the Gox Arm to the FSS, I got into the FSS Elevator and took it up to elevation 260' and from there went up the stairs to the 280' elevation (the elevator did not have a landing at 280 because that was the level which housed all the elevator equipment and lifting gear), and from there took one more short stair up and onto the Camera Platform at elevation 285' which sticks out diagonally from the northeast corner of the FSS, and which was phenomenally well-located to get me within literal arm's reach of the ironworkers, and yet also locate me completely out of their way in a place where I could not have interfered with the work even if I'd wanted to (Don't even think about it. Leave these people strictly alone when they're doing things like this.), thus allowing me to get these incredible close-up pictures of the ongoing work as the arm was slowly drifted in toward the tower by the crane operator.

This first image shows the arm hanging from its lifting sling with the distant backdrop of the pad deck beneath it, peppered with trailers (Boeing TTV), containers, cars, onlookers, and our ironworker who continues to man the tag line which was attached to the far end of the arm.

To the right of our tag line guy, you can see the blackness of the burnt fire-bricks which line the south end of the Flame Trench, and the arc of the rails which carried the RSS across it.

Top Right: (Full-size)

The arm is now closing in on the tower, and as it does so, the crane operator must be very careful to place it in the tightly-restricted space between the Upper and Lower Hinge Access Platforms on the FSS without coming into contact with them.


Bottom Left: (Full-size)

We are now hands-on and although there previously was no room for error, there is quite a bit less room for error now.

The Gox Arm itself continues to hang in the balance, but ironworker lives are also hanging in the balance now, too.

As testimony to the skill of the design, engineering, and fabrication work that has been done prior to this moment, it might be worth remembering that these two very large, very complicated, items have never seen each other before. The FSS has never seen the Gox Arm, and the Gox Arm has never seen the FSS, before this moment. And yet, when they come into contact, they will fit together perfectly to become a single unified whole. This is high-end work at its best, and I never grew tired of marveling at it when it was going on.


Bottom Right: (Full-size)

The arm is now just about the width of your hand away from making contact with the FSS.

But the plane of the Hinge Boxes mounting steel is not quite in alignment with the plane of the strongback steel, and before things can go very much further, this must be accounted for, and our ironworker on the ground who is working the tag line that's tied to the end of the arm will be directed to reposition himself to rotate the arm around to allow it to fit squarely against the steel of the FSS.

The crane will be placed into "inching" mode, the arm will be drifted further into near or even partial contact, spud wrenches will be shoved into whatever near-aligned bolt holes as might be most-easily gotten to, and then with a unique combination of brute-force and delicate nuance, the two pieces will be driven into proper snug and well-aligned contact, and then the bolting up will commence, after which the arm will no longer be a separate thing, but instead will become a part of the FSS.

Ironworkers.