john f. kennedy space center brevard county, florida - Environmental ...

side, which raise and lower with the aid of two 4-ton hoists each. These platforms enable the
crew to access the orbiter/SCA connections at various levels, depending on the operation being
conducted. The total number of MDDs for the Space Shuttle Program is small; there are only the
two permanent structures, one at the KSC, the other at the Dryden Flight Research Center at
Edwards Air Force Base. A third device, the Orbiter Lifting Facility presently at Air Force Plant
42 in Palmdale, California, was specifically designed to be quickly disassembled, moved, and
reassembled at a contingency landing site. In addition, a mobile MDD was assembled at the
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama in 1976, reusing a stiff-legged derrick from
an early 1960s engine test stand. NASA subsequently disassembled the improvised mobile MDD
in Huntsville and transported its derrick to the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New
Mexico to support the third shuttle landing in 1982. This lifting device is no longer extant. As
the primary means of connecting the orbiter to the SCA, the MDD is of exceptional importance to
the Space Shuttle Program, and because it is less than 50 years in age, Criteria Consideration G
applies.
INTEGRITY: The MDD maintains a high level of integrity with regards to location, design,
setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association.