This year begins a new era in the monitoring of expendable vehicle data with
the advanced capability of the upgraded Launch Vehicle Data Center (LVDC).
Contained within NASA’s historic Hangar AE on Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, this new facility will be recognized with a ceremonial open house
on Tuesday, May 15.
The new facility’s three individual control rooms replace a single LVDC
control room in use since the mid-1970’s. Developed by NASA-KSC to support
multiple test operations in parallel or a single large launch operation, the
new LVDC allows up to 100 launch vehicle engineers to monitor the voice,
data and video systems that support the checkout and launch of an expendable
vehicle. This facility can also be linked with NASA’s control rooms at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. used for launching polar-orbiting
spacecraft.
State-of-the-art displays provide enhanced capability to engineers and the
voice communications capability has also been upgraded for each of the new
consoles. These monitoring systems have been almost six years in
development. The first use of the new LVDC occurred successfully with the
launch Mars Odyssey in April.
Participating in the dedication ceremony will be:
Roy D. Bridges, Jr.
Director, Kennedy Space Center
Stephen M. Francois,
Program Manager, Expendable Vehicles and Payload Carriers
Michael J. Benik
Director, Expendable Vehicle Launch Services, Kennedy Space Center
NOTE: Media may attend the open house, tour the new control rooms
and interview the ceremony participants. The associated Mission Directors
Center and Hangar AE Telemetry Station used for all NASA launches of
expendable vehicles will also be available for the press to tour. Food will
be served. Those press representatives who wish to attend the event should
be at the KSC Press Site no later than 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday for
transportation to Hangar AE.
