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Author
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Topic: Mobile Launcher 3 on Pad A in 1975
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LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-04-2024 08:11 AM
  
Photo shows the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) rollout on Mobile Launcher 1 to Pad 39B on March 24, 1975. Mobile Launcher 3 was moved from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Pad 39A on May 22, 1975. It is mentioned briefly in Spaceport News: ... Mobile Launcher 3 was moved from the VAB to Complex 39's Pad A. Saturn related equipment has been removed from the mobile launcher and it will be modified for Space Shuttle launches. A part of the tower structure will be used at Pad A. (I can't find the thread that mentions ML-3 and ASTP were on the pads at the same time.) |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-04-2024 12:54 PM
Maybe this ASTP launch photo was taken from ML-3. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3998
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 10-04-2024 06:53 PM
I can't seem to recall that ML-3 was at Pad 39A when SA-210 flew on July 15, 1975. Some NASA photos show pad 39A with no LUT/ML nor CT on it as far back as AS-210's rollout day on March 24, 1975. It would seem so from your latest posted photo of the Apollo-Soyuz launch was shot from a higher-up location, however if not by ML-3, there might be a possibility that a close-up camera zoom lens might have captured AS-210's liftoff from nearby south Launch Complex 41 high-above on its gantry structure, just under 3 miles away. I'll try to check a few more resources as time permits, but during that time frame, I don't think there was anything on Pad A like this. But as pointed out, NASA's Spaceport News indicates there was. Have you checked over all of those KSC newsletter-type publications from March to July 1975 in finding out more information? If not, I can check my own and report back. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-04-2024 07:30 PM
I will try and find a 1975 or later Spaceport News article that mentions when ML-3 was moved off Pad 39A. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-04-2024 09:14 PM
A November 1975 photo shows all three Mobile Launchers outside the VAB. The dismantling of the ML-3 tower sections began on December 8, 1975. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3998
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 10-04-2024 09:44 PM
Just got an email from a cS-reader that said he was in front of the VAB during launch, which got me to thinking, that I was at Press Site 39 covering the ASTP launch and just can't recall anything atop Pad A. I did take some personal photos of that historic and hectic space day and will have to dig them up in seeing what if anything was on Pad A. Might not have an answer if my camera had not been pointing in that direction. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-04-2024 09:51 PM
I am sure ML-3 was on Pad 39A in 1975. I just don't know how long it was there. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-04-2024 10:01 PM
ML-3 was moved to Pad A on May 22, about two months before the ASTP launch. Spaceport News did mention the May 22 date earlier in the article.I think ML-3 was still on Pad 39A when ASTP launched, and it was moved off the pad sometime between then and November. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3998
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 10-05-2024 09:44 AM
Here is a great photo of ML-3 at Pad A just two days before the U.S. Apollo-Soyuz launch. Note the LUT's missing nine swing arms and hammerhead crane.A big thanks for providing the below picture goes out to lifetime passionate spaceflight historian, author, and photo-archivist J.L. Pickering that most of us cS readers know.  |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-05-2024 01:08 PM
That's great Ken. Thanks to you both for the photo and the footwork.I have never seen any photos that show both ML-3 and ASTP on the pads in the same shot. That's a tough one. If I find any such imagery, I will let you know. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3998
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 10-05-2024 02:12 PM
Perhaps J.L. can help with that as it would be nice to see a single frame imagery with both pads together. Pad "B" with the final Apollo/Saturn vehicle liftoff and with "A" where the first shuttles will fly out of, and already, with some shuttle work modifications that can be seen on ML-3 as early as July 1975. It was suppose to be our nation's new generation of human space flight by 1979 at the time ASTP flew. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-06-2024 10:32 AM
quote:
Originally posted by LM-12:
The dismantling of the ML-3 tower sections began on December 8, 1975.
When they dismantled the ML-3 tower, a 60-foot section was transported to the Launch Equipment Test Facility (LETF) at Kennedy Space Center. The tower sections were reassembled there to anchor and test ground support equipment. I think that tower might still be in use there today. There is a three-level grey tower marked "A" at left in this 2017 photo taken at the LETF. It might be from ML-3. The location looks right based on a 1978 aerial photo. Can anyone confirm this?  |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 04-21-2025 12:09 PM
I think this 1977 photo shows what looks like the LUT section. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-21-2025 12:17 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
I was at Press Site 39 covering the ASTP launch and just can't recall anything atop Pad A.
You can see ML-3 at Pad A at around 6:58 into this ASTP launch day film footage taken near the VAB. Can you see yourself in the Press Site crowd? |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 2005
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 08-21-2025 12:56 PM
quote:
Originally posted by LM-12:
I think that tower might still be in use there today.
Gone with the Shuttle program. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3998
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 08-21-2025 01:38 PM
quote:
Originally posted by LM-12:
Can you see yourself in the Press Site crowd?
Oh my gosh! Thank you for providing that wonderful footage of the press site, main VIP viewing site, and launch of ASTP on that hot summer-day in July 1975. It really took me back to a marvelous place and era that I will never forget as my first media (press) viewing.In seeing all that footage at Press Site 39, I didn't see or recognize myself anywhere in there as I was a young college student with long hair and heavy side burns of which there were many launch observers looking just like me. I did recognize some VIPs, though, in the footage coverage, such as rocket pioneer and space leader Dr. Wernher von Braun, Bob Gray of ULO-NASA at Kennedy, Dr. Eberhard Rees of the von Braun team at MSFC/Huntsville, US Florida Congressman Lou Frey, US Senator Barry Goldwater, Major General Davy Jones of the Air Force Eastern Test Range, and I believe actor and strong space supporter Hugh O'Brien. It was Representative Lou Frey of my district in Florida that had invited me to witness my first manned space shots from the primary VIP viewing site stands during the later Apollo liftoffs and for several Skylabs along with US Senator Ed Gurney of my Florida Space Coast home district. Thank you so much again for sharing as it brought back a special time that was so endearing to me. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-21-2025 01:56 PM
Do you see ML-3 at Pad A in the footage? |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3998
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 08-21-2025 02:00 PM
No, I was looking, but will check again as I may have missed it. Do you know how far down in the film it was? |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-21-2025 02:05 PM
Both pads can be seen at around 6:58 when the camera pans. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-22-2025 06:06 AM
That looks like famed test pilot Bob Hoover talking with Goldwater in film footage of the crowd. |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3870
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 08-22-2025 12:30 PM
I watched the launch from a position north of the VAB, and I always had the impression that my viewing angle was rather better than the view from the main press stand which seemed to be optimized for Pad 39A. One additional point I note from this film: although the sky was mostly blue, there was a patch of drifting cloud that threatened to blot out my view of the ascending rocket around the time of Max Q. Fortunately for me, the cloud just avoided the rocket, but it looks like it partly obscured the ascending rocket for those viewing from the VAB press-site.As I fondly remember that wonderful day, I am also reminded of something I only noticed when I finally got to see my movie footage* of the launch. At about T-8 seconds a man holding a camera is walking towards me, facing AWAY from the rocket. He continues to walk towards me as the first-stage engines ignite at T-3.1 seconds, and it is only at about T+1 when he spins on one heel with his camera raised to take a picture. I don't know why he bothered coming. *For the benefit of younger readers, those were the days when you had to post your exposed movie film to people like Kodak, and if you were lucky you might get it back within 2 weeks! |
mgspacecadet
Member Posts: 45
From:
Registered: Apr 2012
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posted 08-22-2025 05:22 PM
Also of note in the ASTP launch day footage, Kurt Debus, in a fisherman’s hat, shows up starting at 8 min 4 sec, going down the VAB VIP stands. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3998
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 08-22-2025 06:21 PM
Yes, indeed, how did I miss Dr. Kurt Debus in that ASTP footage? Of all the Apollo launches from Pad 39, he was always on station inside the Launch Control Center's firing room. Apollo-Soyuz was his first launch as a spectator outside the LCC since his retirement in Nov. 1974. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 4185
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-23-2025 09:12 AM
Here is some really great film footage of the ASTP launch taken from the VAB roof. It gives an even better view of ML-3 at Pad A and the ASTP vehicle at Pad B.At 45 seconds, you can see some fire trucks in a small parking lot near the VAB. The astronaut transfer van is parked near the lot entrance. The two vehicles right next to it might be the closeout crew vans. |
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