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42-762: The Mate-Demate Device was a specialized gantry crane designed to lift a Space Shuttle orbiter onto and off the back of a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA). Two Mate-Demate Devices were built, one at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, the other at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A third Orbiter Lifting Fixture was to serve a similar function at the Vandenberg Air Force Base ,

84-608: A Northwest Passage . Other ships bearing the name have included HMS  Discovery of the 1875–1876 British Arctic Expedition to the North Pole, and RRS  Discovery , which carried the 1901–1904 Discovery Expedition to Antarctica , led by Captain Scott . Space Shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope and conducted the second and third Hubble service missions. It also launched

126-524: A 100,000-pound (45,000 kg) lift capability. Operating together, the total lifting capacity of the three units is 240,000 pounds (110,000 kg). Two access platforms for servicing specialists could descend from the cantilevered section to the sides of the orbiter. Connell Associates of Coral Gables, Florida, designed the MDD. It was constructed in 1976 by the George A. Fuller Company of Chicago, Illinois, at

168-488: A 22,000-tonne (21,700-long-ton; 24,300-short-ton) capacity crane, the " Honghai Crane " was planned for construction in Qidong City , China and was finished in 2014. Smaller gantry cranes are also available running on rubber tyres so that tracks are not needed. Rubber tyred gantry cranes are essential for moving containers from berths throughout the rest of the yard. For this task they come in large sizes, as pictured to

210-480: A cost of US$ 1,700,000 (equivalent to $ 9,102,456 in 2023). The California MDD was dismantled in 2014 by Pantano Demolition of Manteca, California, at a cost of US$ 178,000 (equivalent to $ 229,093 in 2023). A similar but slightly less complex Mate-Demate Device was located at the Shuttle Landing Facility airport at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The MDD was located just off

252-404: A movable beam-mounted hoist in addition to the entire structure being wheeled, and some overhead cranes are suspended from a freestanding gantry. Ship-to-shore gantry cranes are imposing, multi-story structures prominent at most container terminals , used to load intermodal containers on and off container ships . They operate along two rails (waterside and landside designations) spaced based on

294-533: A single-use central fuel tank, and two reusable solid rocket boosters . Nearly 25,000 heat-resistant tiles cover the orbiter to protect it from high temperatures on re-entry. Discovery became the third operational orbiter to enter service, preceded by Columbia and Challenger . After the Challenger and Columbia accidents, Discovery became the oldest surviving orbiter. It embarked on its final mission, STS-133 , on February 24, 2011, and touched down for

336-435: A special sling that could be attached to the orbiter, allowing it to be lifted by cranes. Typically, a smaller crane supported the front end of the sling, while a larger crane supported the rear. To compensate for the absence of the stabilizing structure normally provided by the MDD, an arrangement of wire ropes, masts, and winches would be set up to provide stability for the suspended Orbiter/Sling combination. The mobile sling

378-445: A time with ship-to-shore gantry cranes on both sides of the vessel. This allows for more cranes and double the workspace under the cranes to be used for transporting cargo off dock. The first quayside container gantry crane was developed in 1959 by Paceco Corporation . Full gantry cranes (where the load remains beneath the gantry structure, supported from a beam) are well suited to lifting massive objects such as ships' engines, as

420-467: A total of 54 of the 135 shuttle missions. This MDD would be used to hoist an orbiter onto a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the flight back to Florida. The MDD in California consisted of two 100-foot (30 m) towers with stationary work platforms every 20 feet (6.1 m) up to the 80-foot (24 m) level. A horizontal structure was mounted at the 80-foot (24 m) level between the two towers. The horizontal unit cantilevers out 70 feet (21 m) from

462-537: Is due to the relatively slow speed yet high reach of rubber tyred gantry cranes when compared to other forms of container terminal equipment. Portable gantry cranes are used to lift and transport smaller items, usually less than 10 tonnes (9.8 long tons; 11 short tons). They are widely used in the HVAC, machinery moving and fine art installation industries. Some portable gantry cranes are equipped with an enclosed track, while others use an I-beam, or other extruded shapes, for

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504-633: Is now on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum . The name Discovery was chosen to carry on a tradition based on ships of exploration, primarily HMS  Discovery , one of the ships commanded by Captain James Cook during his third and final major voyage from 1776 to 1779, and Henry Hudson 's Discovery , which was used in 1610–1611 to explore Hudson Bay and search for

546-706: The Challenger and Columbia disasters: STS-26 in 1988, STS-114 in 2005, and STS-121 in 2006. Discovery flew the ante-penultimate mission of the Space Shuttle program, STS-133 , having launched on February 24, 2011. Endeavour flew STS-134 and Atlantis performed STS-135 , NASA's last Space Shuttle mission. On February 24, 2011, Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39-A to begin its final orbital flight. ‡ Longest shuttle mission for Discovery – shortest shuttle mission for Discovery The Flow Director

588-572: The Ulysses probe and three TDRS satellites. Twice Discovery was chosen as the "Return To Flight" Orbiter, first in 1988 after the loss of Challenger in 1986, and then again for the twin "Return To Flight" missions in July 2005 and July 2006 after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Project Mercury astronaut John Glenn , who was 77 at the time, flew with Discovery on STS-95 in 1998, making him

630-644: The Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast . They have spans of 140 metres (460 ft) and can lift loads of up to 840 tonnes (830 long tons ; 930 short tons ) to a height of 70 metres (230 ft). In 2008, the world's strongest gantry crane, Taisun , which can lift 20,000 tonnes (19,700 long tons; 22,000 short tons), was installed in Yantai , China at the Yantai Raffles Shipyard . In 2012,

672-545: The Smithsonian Institution 's National Air and Space Museum for public display and preservation, after a month-long decontamination process, as part of the national collection. Discovery replaced Enterprise , which was in the Smithsonian's display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center until 2011. Discovery was transported to Washington Dulles International Airport on April 17, 2012, and

714-572: The Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1991. Previously, the orbiters were trucked to the MDD at the Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, about 36 miles (58 km) away, which took about 10 hours. The Orbiter Lifting Fixture was dismantled in 2008. On the rare occasions when an orbiter needed to be loaded or unloaded at a location where a permanent lifting device was not available, NASA had

756-400: The orbiters from NASA 's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D , flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, aggregating more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date. The Space Shuttle launch vehicle had three main components: the Space Shuttle orbiter ,

798-563: The California version. The contract to build the KSC MDD was awarded during the first quarter of calendar year 1977 and it was completed in June 1978. The first use of the KSC MDD was on 19 October 1978 when the Space Shuttle Pathfinder was lifted for a fit-check. The first operational shuttle to use the KSC MDD was the Space Shuttle Columbia which was lifted up in March 1979 at

840-649: The Udvar-Hazy Center, riding piggy-back on a modified Boeing 747 . After STS-105 , Discovery became the first of the orbiter fleet to undergo Orbiter Major Modification (OMM) period at the Kennedy Space Center. Work began in September 2002 to prepare the vehicle for Return to Flight. The work included scheduled upgrades and additional safety modifications. Discovery was decommissioned on March 9, 2011. NASA offered Discovery to

882-597: The end of its delivery flight. When it was first built, the top KSC MDD was the location of the first air traffic control tower for the Shuttle Landing Facility. The KSC MDD was demolished in 2014. Orbiter Lifting Fixture was a scaled-down version of the MDD planned for use exclusively at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was first used by Space Shuttle Discovery during a fit-check during its initial delivery flight in November 1983 and

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924-473: The entire structure can resist the torque created by the load, and counterweights are generally not required. These are often found in shipyards where they are used to move large ship components together for construction. They use a complex system of cables and attachments to support the massive loads undertaken by the full gantry cranes. Some full gantry cranes of note are Samson and Goliath and Taisun. Samson and Goliath are two full gantry cranes located in

966-417: The last time at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, having spent a cumulative total of nearly a full year in space. Discovery performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions, and also carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit among other satellites. Discovery was the first operational shuttle to be retired, followed by Endeavour and then Atlantis . The shuttle

1008-556: The left, that are used for moving to straddle multiple lanes of rail, road, or container storage. They also are capable of lifting fully loaded containers to great heights. Smaller rubber tyred gantry cranes come in the form of straddle carriers which are used when moving individual containers or vertical stacks of containers. Portable gantry crane systems, such as rubber tyred gantry cranes, are in high demand in terminals and ports restricted in size and reliant on maximizing vertical space and not needing to haul containers long distances. This

1050-401: The main tower units. It controlled and guided a large lift beam that attached to the orbiters to raise and lower them. Three large hoists were then used simultaneously to raise and lower the lift beam. Two of the hoists are connected to the portion of the lift beam that attaches to the rear of the orbiter, and one is attached to the portion of the beam that attaches to the front. Each hoist had

1092-481: The middle starboard window where there should have been white tiles. It is unknown if this was the result of a harmless manufacturing mishap or done intentionally to give a distinctive look to the shuttle. This feature has been called 'teardrop' and allowed Discovery to be told apart from the rest of the fleet without looking at its name, although often unnoticed by the uninitiated. The spacecraft weighed roughly 6,870 lb (3,120 kg) less than Columbia when it

1134-403: The oldest person to go into space at that time in history. Had plans to launch United States Department of Defense payloads from Vandenberg Air Force Base gone ahead, Discovery would have become the dedicated US Air Force shuttle. Its first West Coast mission, STS-62-A , was scheduled for 1986, but canceled in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster . On May 27, 1999, Discovery

1176-631: The orbiter underwent a nine-month Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP) in Palmdale, California . This included outfitting the vehicle with a 5th set of cryogenic tanks and an external airlock to support missions to the International Space Station . As with all the orbiters, it could be attached to the top of specialized aircraft and did so in June 1996 when it returned to the Kennedy Space Center, and later in April 2012 when sent to

1218-460: The proposed West Coast launch location for the Shuttle. It was later moved to Palmdale to support the plant where the Shuttle was built and refurbished. A portable sling was also built to support mate-demate operations away from the primary locations. The first Mate-Demate Device was located at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base , California. Construction of the MDD

1260-409: The running surface. Most workstation gantry cranes are intended to be stationary when loaded, and mobile when unloaded. Workstation Gantry Cranes can be outfitted with either a wire rope hoist or a lower capacity chain hoist. Space Shuttle Discovery Space Shuttle Discovery ( Orbiter Vehicle Designation : OV-103 ) is a retired American Space Shuttle orbiter . The spaceplane was one of

1302-675: The shuttle in the case that it landed at one of its backup landing sites other than Edwards. The sling saw heavy use in 2012 to transport Discovery , Endeavour and Enterprise to museums at the conclusion of the Shuttle program. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . Gantry crane The terms gantry crane and overhead crane (or bridge crane) are often used interchangeably, as both types of crane straddle their workload. The distinction most often drawn between

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1344-670: The size of crane to be used. Lateral movement system: Vertical frame and braces: Crane boom: Hook: Operating cabin: Storage equipment: Ship-to-shore gantry cranes are often used in pairs or teams of cranes in order to minimize the time required to load and unload vessels. As container ship sizes and widths have increased throughout the 20th Century, ship-to-shore gantry cranes and the implementation of those gantry cranes have become more individualized in order to effectively load and unload vessels while maximizing profitability and minimizing time in port. One example are systems where specialized berths are built that accommodate one vessel at

1386-432: The southeast end of the runway. Its primary use was unloading the orbiter after its cross-country flight from Edwards. Like its sibling in California, the MDD in Florida consisted of two 100-foot (30 m) towers equipped with hoists, adapters and movable platforms for access to certain orbiter components and equipment. The KSC MDD's hoists had a total lifting capacity of 230,000 pounds (100,000 kg), slightly less than

1428-425: The two is that with gantry cranes, the entire structure (including gantry) is usually wheeled (often on rails ). By contrast, the supporting structure of an overhead crane is fixed in location, often in the form of the walls or ceiling of a building, to which is attached a movable hoist running overhead along a rail or beam (which may itself move). Further confusing the issue is that gantry cranes may also incorporate

1470-509: The white LRSI tiles on the fuselage, and the use of graphite epoxy instead of aluminum for the payload bay doors and some of the wing spars and beams. Upon its delivery to the Kennedy Space Center in 1983, Discovery was modified alongside Challenger to accommodate the liquid-fueled Centaur-G booster, which had been planned for use beginning in 1986 but was cancelled in the wake of the Challenger disaster. Beginning in late 1995,

1512-485: Was brought into service due to optimalizations determined during the construction and testing of Enterprise , Columbia and Challenger . Discovery weighs 6 pounds (2.7 kg) heavier than Atlantis and 363 pounds (165 kg) heavier than Endeavour after further weight-saving adjustments were made. Part of the Discovery weight optimizations included the greater use of quilted AFRSI blankets rather than

1554-428: Was completed in late 1976. It was first used during operations with the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise during the five Approach and Landing Tests in 1977. During the Shuttle program, the Shuttle Landing Facility airport at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was the primary landing site for orbiters. However, the longer runways at Edwards were used for 11 of the first 12 missions and would be used for

1596-487: Was launched on STS-96 , the first shuttle mission to dock with the International Space Station . Discovery was retired after completing its final mission, STS-133 on March 9, 2011. The spacecraft is now on display in Virginia at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center , an annex of the Smithsonian Institution 's National Air and Space Museum . During its construction, Discovery was fitted with several black tiles near

1638-476: Was responsible for the overall preparation of the shuttle for launch and processing it after landing, and remained permanently assigned to head the spacecraft's ground crew while the astronaut flight crews changed for every mission. Each shuttle's Flow Director was supported by a Vehicle Manager for the same spacecraft. Space Shuttle Discovery' s Flow Directors were: [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of

1680-652: Was transferred to the Udvar-Hazy on April 19 where a welcome ceremony was held. Afterwards, at around 5:30 pm, Discovery was rolled to its "final wheels stop" in the Udvar Hazy Center. By its last mission, Discovery had flown 149 million mi (240 million km) in 39 missions, completed 5,830 orbits, and spent 365 days in orbit over 27 years. Discovery flew more flights than any other Orbiter Shuttle, including four in 1985 alone. Discovery flew both "return to flight" missions after

1722-474: Was used multiple times early in the Shuttle program during the late 1970s and mid-1980s to transport Space Shuttle Enterprise for display at various locations around the world. It was also used to load Space Shuttle Columbia onto an SCA when it landed at White Sands in New Mexico at the end of STS-3 in 1982. The sling went unused between the mid-1980s and 2012, on standby to transport

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1764-468: Was used to unload and load Space Shuttle Enterprise for pad fit checks at Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 in 1984 and 1985. Shuttle flights from the West Coast were canceled following the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster . The Orbiter Lifting Fixture was relocated to United States Air Force Plant 42 where the orbiters were built in Palmdale, California , before the delivery of

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