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22-571: SSPF may refer to: Space Station Processing Facility , a factory at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S. SS and police leader , a senior Nazi official State Social Protection Fund (Azerbaijan) Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation , an American charitable organization Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

44-681: A Progress , ATV , or the interior of the Space Shuttle to the ISS. In the past ISPRs were delivered in Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules , which were carried in the Space Shuttle cargo bay and berthed to CBM ports. Cygnus spacecraft hatches are too narrow to fit ISPRs with their 37 inches (94 cm) wide openings and Cargo Dragon 1 spacecraft have no capability to either launch or return ISPRs because of

66-416: A ballroom and conference halls, and a cafeteria. The processing areas, airlock, and laboratories are designed to support non-hazardous Space Station and Space Shuttle payloads in 100,000 class clean work areas . The building has a total floor area of 42,500 m (457,000 sq ft). During the re-designing phase of Space Station Freedom in early 1991, Congress approved new plans for NASA to lead

88-575: A secure backup-power supply. The facility also has 15 offline labs. Office floor area: 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m ) of office/work space As of 24 June 2023 : When the lights in the building are on, most of these components can be seen on the live webcam from the facility. After the completion of the International Space Station in 2011, the SSPF factory was dormant for several months until early 2012, where

110-443: A station module and launching it without ever physically testing it with other modules. The integration testing was not originally in the ISS plan, but in 1995 Johnson Space Center designers began to consider it and embedding KSC personnel at module factories. Multi-Element Integration Testing (MEIT) of ISS modules at KSC was officially in the books in 1997. Three MEIT and one Integration Systems Test (IST) tests were conducted for

132-523: A thin center post to accommodate sub-rack-sized payloads, such as the 483 mm ( 19-inch rack ) Spacelab Standard Interface Rack (SIR) Drawer or the Space Shuttle Middeck Locker. Utility pass-through ports are located on each side to allow cables to be run between Racks. Module attachment points are provided at the top of the rack and via pivot points at the bottom. The pivot points support installation and maintenance. Tracks on

154-605: The Dream Chaser mini-space shuttle, have begun manufacturing and processing operations in the high bay as of December 2022 . The building itself is open to the public and tours are offered free of charge by the employees. Exclusive tours of many areas of the SSPF are part of the Kennedy visitor complex 's enhanced bus tour package. In 2016, the laboratories of the SSPF were utilized by many small science companies and student unions with scientific equipment to study

176-676: The Space Station Processing Facility to the Space Systems Processing Facility , keeping the same acronym. At the SSPF, space station modules, trusses and solar arrays are prepped and made ready for launch. The low and high bays are fully air conditioned and ambient temperature is maintained at 12 °C (54 °F) at all times. Workers and engineers wear full non-contaminant clothing while working. Modules receive cleaning and polishing, and some areas are temporarily disassembled for

198-457: The 21st century, more commercial partners began using the SSPF for projects unrelated to the ISS. In addition, after the announcement of discontinuing ISS operations beyond 2030 (leading to its planned de-orbit in 2031), the SSPF increasingly became a space for general space systems rather than specifically tailoring to the ISS. Due to these reasons, in December 2023, the facility was renamed from

220-759: The ISS, taking about three years from planning to completion and closure: After the launch of the Destiny , an emulator was built for MEIT testing, since the lab controlled many other modules. Among the items checked were mechanical connections, the ability to flow power and fluids between modules, and the flight software. Numerous issues were found and rectified from these on the ground tests, many of which could not have been fixed in orbit. The SSPF's High Bays provide maximum flexibility for manufacturing, assembly, testing and processing payloads and elements destined for space. The bays are enormous cleanrooms equipped with overhead cranes , commodities-servicing equipment and

242-667: The SSPF and its ballroom to learn about the building's history, manufacturing acitivies, biological and chemical sciences, and the future vision of space operations at Kennedy Space Center, including the Lunar Gateway mockup module. The ballroom also doubles as a lecture hall for presentations. On rare occasions the high bay was once used for the National Space Council 's second revived meeting on February 21, 2018. Tenants including Northrop Grumman , Lockheed Martin and Airbus have also moved facilities into

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264-993: The SSPF. International Standard Payload Rack The International Standard Payload Rack ( ISPR ) is a steel framework container that is designed and been adopted by the International Space Station (ISS) program to support efficient integration and interchangeability of space payload hardware, such as machines and experiments. A typical rack contains 37 ISPR slots for science payloads, which are interchangeable to accommodate different components or payloads. Each ISPR provides 1.571 m (55.5 cu ft) of internal volume being about 2 m (79 in) high, 1.05 m (41 in) wide, and 85.9 cm (33.8 in) deep. The rack weighs 104 kg (230  lb ) and can accommodate an additional 700 kg (1,500 lb) of payload equipment. The rack has internal mounting provisions to allow attachment of secondary structure. The ISPRs will be outfitted with

286-531: The building was slightly refurbished for the moving in of space companies (such as Orbital ATK, SpaceX and eventually Sierra Nevada Corporation) to manufacture, process and load-up Cygnus and Dragon spacecraft and on-board payloads, as part of the Commercial Resupply Services program. NASA's upcoming Artemis mission hardware such as Moon and Mars space station modules and Space Launch System core stage engine sections, as well as

308-584: The components. On March 26, 1991, engineers at Kennedy Space Center; along with contractor Metric Constructions Inc. of Tampa Florida, broke ground on a new $ 56 million Space Station Processing Facility, situated adjacent to the O&;C. The design called for a 457,000-square-foot multifunction building housing an enormous processing bay, laboratories, control rooms, staging areas, communications and control facilities, and office space for some 1,400 NASA and contractor employees. KSC Deputy Director Gene Thomas described

330-457: The construction: "The skyline around here is really going to change. This will be the biggest facility that we have built since the Apollo days". The SSPF used reinforced concrete and some 4,300 tons of steel. The building was structurally completed and topped out by mid 1992. After three years of construction, interior fitting and equipment set-up, the SSPF formally opened on June 23, 1994. Into

352-507: The exterior front posts allow mounting of payload equipment and laptop computers . Additional adapters on the ISPRs are provided for ground handling. The International Standard Payload Rack are the size of a side-by-side refrigerator, and is too big to fit through the Russian probe and drogue docking system, APAS , or NDS docking systems, and therefore cannot be transferred directly from

374-577: The feasibility of growing vegetables in space, such as the Veggie plant growth system, and the Advanced Plant Habitat; to launch as scientific payloads to the International Space Station . When the high bay area is less busy at times, a variety of events and conferences are held in various places within the SSPF building. Occasional STEM exhibitions take place where visitors (from children and teenagers to university students) can visit

396-458: The installation of cables, electrical systems and plumbing. In another area, shipments of spare materials are available for installation. International Standard Payload Rack frames are assembled and welded together, allowing the installation of instruments, machines and allowing science experiment boxes to be fitted. Once racks are fully assembled, they are hoisted by a special manually operated robotic crane and carefully maneuvered into place inside

418-498: The project and begin manufacturing its components for the future International Space Station . Kennedy Space Center was selected as the ideal launch processing complex for the ISS, as well as hosting all the internationally manufactured modules and station elements. However the Operations and Checkout Building (which was originally to be the prime factory for station launch processing) was insufficient in size to accommodate all

440-436: The space station modules. Each rack weighs from 700 to 1,100 kg, and connect inside the module on special mounts with screws and latches. Cargo bags for MPLM modules are filled with their cargo such as food packages, science experiments and other miscellaneous items on-site in the SSPF, and loaded into the module by the same robotic crane and strapped in securely. Many of the builders accompanied their modules from around

462-609: The title SSPF . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SSPF&oldid=978401085 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Space Station Processing Facility The SSPF includes two processing bays, an airlock, operational control rooms, laboratories, logistics areas for equipment and machines, office space,

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484-431: The world during their manufacturing, and worked at KSC for months to years during final assembly. Many ISS modules were renamed after successfully launching. Regarding the launch of modules of the International Space Station (ISS), there had been philosophical differences for years between designers and payload processors whether to ship-and-shoot or perform integration testing prior to launch. The former involved building

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