Five, four, three, two, one, main engine start and liftoff!
Music
Why do we send anything into space?
Well, it turns out sending spacecraft into space has a major impact on your life,
and in ways you may not have realized.
You're starting on a fascinating tour behind the scenes of NASA's Launch
Services Program. Have you ever wondered how we're able to monitor the
weather and other forces at work on Earth? And how much effort did it really take
to get the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity safely to the red planet?
These science and earth exploring missions all begin the same way--as a
carefully designed and built spacecraft attached to a rocket and launched into
space from one of NASA's two launch sites. None of this happens overnight. Every mission is a product of years of
challenging work. Every spacecraft must be designed, developed, built, tested
and prepared for launch. This work takes place at Universities and NASA centers all over the country.
So, how do these engineering marvels get to the launch site?
And once they get there, who puts on the finishing touches to prepare the spacecraft for flight?
Well, spacecraft are shipped either fully put together, or in sections.
They arrive by truck, or by airplane to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida or
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Once there, the spacecraft heads to a processing facility where engineers get them ready for launch.
The processing facility is a cleanroom environment, and in the space business,
the cleanroom goes a lot further than sweeping the floor!
In fact, everyone working on the spacecraft in the cleanroom has to put on a
special suit, affectionately known as a "bunny suit," over their own clothing.
They have to tape their jewelry to their skin to keep it from getting loose in the
work area, cover their facial hair and tie a string around their glasses so they don’t accidentally come off.
It sounds extreme, but there's a good reason: The spacecraft and its delicate parts
must stay as clean and bacteria-free as possible.
When the spacecraft is finally ready for launch, it starts the last leg of its journey on Earth.
The spacecraft is tucked inside a protective fairing and then taken to the launch pad, where it is added to the launch vehicle.
NASA's Launch Services Program, operating from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
uses many types of space vehicles.
The LSP engineers help choose the type of rocket that is best suited to the weight and the destination of the
spacecraft and the mission's goals.
Most rockets lift off vertically; many of us have seen rockets that sit on a launch pad.
When the countdown clock gets to zero, the engines ignite and send the rocket on its way.
But there's also another more unusual type of rocket.
It's small enough to attach to the underside of a commercial airplane.
The airplane flies to just the right place and the right altitude, then drops the rocket,
which lights its own engine and sends the spacecraft into space.
As you can see, launching a space mission is no small job.
It takes a lot of time and care to make sure that each and every spacecraft and launch vehicle is ready for the flight.
But these missions help us live safer and healthier lives, and that makes everything worth it.