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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: 3996
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: 3996
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: 3879
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: 3996
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: 3996
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: 3879
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: 3996
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: 3996
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: 3879
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: 3996
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: 3879
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: 3996
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?  |
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