![]() OPF-1 and OPF-2 were connected with a low bay between them, while OPF-3 is across the street. They were located west of the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the orbiter was mated with its External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters before transport to the launch pad. All three such facilities, OPF-1, OPF-2 and OPF-3, were located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at Launch Complex 39. space shuttle orbiters underwent maintenance between flights. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.Orbiter Processing Facility This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia ( view authors).Īn Orbiter Processing Facility ( OPF) was one of three hangars where U.S. NASA furthermore stated that renovations of the two hangars would be completed by the end of 2014 the main doors of OPF-1 were marked with the message "Home of the X-37B" by this point. NASA also stated that the program had completed tests to determine whether the X-37B, one-fourth the size of the Space Shuttle, could land on the former Shuttle runways. Boeing had said the space planes would use OPF-1 in January 2014, and the Air Force had previously said it was considering consolidating X-37B operations, housed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, nearer to their launch site at Cape Canaveral. On 8 October 2014, NASA confirmed that Boeing X-37B vehicles would be housed at Kennedy Space Center in OPF-1 and 2, hangars previously occupied by the Space Shuttle. OPF-3 is under lease to Boeing for the manufacture and testing of their CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. OPF-2 is now inactive following Atlantis 's departure on October 18, 2012. OPF-1 was closed following Atlantis's rollout on June 29, 2012. The last step before rollover to the VAB was weighing the orbiter to determine its center of gravity. Remaining payloads, fuels and fluids were installed on the pad closer to launch day. Prior to rollout to the Vehicle Assembly Building, several weeks before scheduled launch, the orbiter was prepared for the next mission by installing mission flight kits, payloads, consumable fluids and gases where possible. After all its flights, the orbiter went through "Down Mission Processing.".any modifications to the orbiter were completed in the OPF.the Orbital Maneuvering System and Reaction Control System pods were possibly removed and transferred to the Hypergol Maintenance Facility for troubleshooting, repair or other services.any needed repairs on the orbiter's thermal protection system including the thermal blankets and thousands of tiles were completed.main engines were removed and transferred to the Main Engine Processing Facility for checkout and service.scaffolding was installed around the orbiters aft to allow technicians to access the main engines. ![]()
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