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Music ♪

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Rising out of the flat
desert sands in Edwards,

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CA is a giant metal structure
standing one hundred feet tall

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and almost a hundred
feet wide.... It's made of

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industrial strength steel that
can withstand the harshest

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winds and rain. This monolith
of the desert located at

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NASA's Dryden Flight Research
Center has been an unsung hero

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in the life of the Space
Shuttle Program for the last

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thirty-four years. This
steel giant is called the

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Mate-Demate Device,
or simply, the MDD.

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"Six inches... it moves three
inches forward and three
inches aft. And that's

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all the adjustment you have

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to set it on top of the
747. You can't move it
anymore than that."

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"You gotta remember that thing
was built to lift 330,000 lbs.

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See a shuttle up close, watch

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it take off on top of that
747 when it leaves here

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and it's just amazing...
and to know you had
something to do with it."

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After the shuttle makes its
grand re-entry, landing
safely while the world looks on.... .... and after

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the media has all shut off
their cameras and gone home,

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a vital, albeit less glamorous
event is just beginning the

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processing and mating of
the orbiter in the MDD.

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After landings at
Edwards Air Force Base,

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the MDD is used to hoist and
attach the shuttle orbiter

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onto to Shuttle Carrier
Aircraft so that it can be

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flown back to NASAs Kennedy
Space Center in Florida. While

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simple in concept, the
execution of this task is

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anything but, considering the
average landing weight of a

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shuttle is roughly 230,000lbs
and holds research and

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payloads acquired in outer space
... precious cargo indeed.

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In addition to "mating"
the orbiter to the

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shuttle carrier aircraft,
a modified Boeing 747,

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the MDD is utilized to
"process" the shuttle,

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a week-long procedure that
includes taking up the landing

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gear, attaching the tail cone,
and literally "battening down

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the hatches". "They have what
they call 'SCAPE Operations',

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and that's when they do the
actual de-fueling... and the

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people doing the de-fueling,
they have to be in a full

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suit. It's air
contained, self-contained,

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get's its own air and
everything... looks like those

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space walkers." During
the week of processing,

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the orbiter is lifted about
10 feet off the ground while

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crews work around the
clock. "That the basic idea,

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to put the shuttle on top of
the 747. That whole process

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involves a week of processing
to safe the vehicle, to put
it on the 747."

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Just before landing at Edwards,

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Kennedy Space Center deploys
about 120 people to Dryden to

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process the Orbiter.
Together with the Dryden team,

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this highly
specialized team of engineers,

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pilots and ground crew work in
unison under harsh conditions

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performing precision,
high-risk tasks with a fragile

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100-ton spacecraft. "If you
don't do your job and do it

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right, there is always
something that can happen. It

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could lead to
someone getting hurt,

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harming the shuttle... so you
have to make sure your job is

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done and done right and with
all the expertise you know and

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have. So, and that's really
what keeps you going is the
pride in doing that."

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Over the years,

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ground crews were able to
perfect the art of mating and

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processing the orbiter,
but never without risk and

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hardship. To fully appreciate
the complexity and scale of

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this undertaking, it is
helpful to understand how the

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MDD came to be, and how it
has served as an essential

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component in the success of
the STS program at large.

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As the sun was setting on the
Apollo space program in the

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early '70's, a new program,
the Space Transportation

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System Space Shuttle
was dawning. One defining

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distinction between the two
programs was that the space

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shuttle was a
reusable spacecraft,

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unlike it's
predecessor. The shuttle,

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or orbiter, was to be lofted
into low Earth orbit with the

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energy of two solid rockets
and the orbiters three

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engines fueled by an enormous
external tank filled with

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liquid oxygen and liquid
hydrogen. Upon it's return

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from space missions, the
orbiter would re-enter the

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Earth's atmosphere, flying
without power like a glider,

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and land on a long, paved
runway like traditional

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aircraft. These methods of
launch and re-entry proved to

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be very effective. With an
extremely short wing span and

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without the expendable
external fuel tank used for

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lift-off however, the orbiter
lacked the ability to take off

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and fly like a conventionally
powered aircraft in the

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Earth's atmosphere. From
the start of the program,

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engineers recognized that the
orbiters might not be able to

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return to their launch site
at the Kennedy Space Center in

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Florida because of an engine
malfunction after lift-off,

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or because unfavorable weather
conditions. "Shuttle can't

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land in the rain, no. Once
it breaks through the Earth's

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atmosphere, it starts cooling
off and there's enough space

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between the tiles that
any water penetrating that

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actually hydraulically pushes
the tile off of the shuttle.

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The water doesn't
have any place to go,

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so... The tiles
are just glued on,

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that's why landing at Kennedy,
always a concern because you

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know how much rain they
get there. And we're usually

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pretty dry here."

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In this event, a landing
elsewhere would
necessitate bringing the

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shuttle back to Florida...
which meant the need for a

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structure capable of lifting
the orbiter off the ground and

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placing it on the back of the
747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

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Using cranes to lift and
attach an orbiter was deemed a

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far too delicate balancing act
to sustain over the course of

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the Shuttle Program. It soon
became clear that there was

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need to build a permanent and
reliable structure to achieve

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this task. Hence, the idea of
the Mate De-Mate Device was

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born and plans to fabricate
and construct the first MDD

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were put into action.

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The Kennedy Space Center
awarded a $1.2-million-plus
contract to the

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George A. Fuller Company,
a division of the
Northrop Corporation,

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to design and build the
first Mate Demate Device.

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Soon after, the MDD at Kennedy
Space Center was constructed

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in 1976. In the early
stages of the shuttle program,

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it was especially important to
build an MDD at Dryden first.

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Assembled in
nearby Palmdale, CA,

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the first three
orbiters, Enterprise,

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Columbia, and Challenger, were
actually trucked to Dryden.

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Once there, the MDD would be
utilized for the first time in

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the historic and
groundbreaking Approach and

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Landing Test program in 1977.
The Approach and Landing Test

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program, or ALT, was an
essential component in the

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development of the space
shuttle program. Used to

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validate the flying
characteristics of the orbiter

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upon re-entry & landing, and
test it's systems in flight,

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the ALT program made use of
the MDD for the first time to

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load and unload Enterprise
onto the Boeing 747 in a

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series of high-risk
test flights in 1977.

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In 1982, NASA arranged to have
a permanent Mate-Demate Device

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erected in Palmdale. The
Orbiter Loading Facility,

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or OLF, was originally built
for use by the Air Force at

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Vandenberg Air Force Base,
where it planned to launch a

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shuttle for its own missions.
When the Air Force cancelled

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its plans for a dedicated
orbiter and launch facility on

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the West Coast, the OLF
was relocated to Palmdale.

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"Several years ago they
were doing refurbishment

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of the shuttles in Palmdale at
the Boeing facility and the

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orbiter would
fly in on the 747,

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and it would fly into Palmdale
and we would offload it using

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the OLF. And then we would
transfer the shuttle over to

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the Boeing folks and
they would to the

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shuttle modifications,
and then, you know,

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maybe a year later we'd
pick the shuttle up

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and reverse the process -
put it back on the 747

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and fly it back to Florida."

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The shuttle orbits the Earth
at mach 25, and makes it's
landing at over 200mph.

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But when the orbiter finally
comes to a halt on the ground,

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the massive spacecraft is not
easy maneuver. After landing,

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the orbiter is towed about two
miles to the MDD. A process

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that takes over an hour.
Once situated in the MDD,

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the orbiter is lifted off the
ground and held there for days

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while crews work under
and over the orbiter,

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preparing it for it's return
flight. Because it is not

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hermetically sealed, the cargo
bay is kept at a positive

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pressure and the electronics
in the vehicle are kept

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operational. This ensures
that equipment and any

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experiments on and in the
orbiter are kept cool

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throughout its stay in the MDD.

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"Anything that's in the payload
bay stays there because on the
ground, the payload

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bay, the doors aren't capable of
opening themselves. They have

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a special apparatus back at
the Cape to hook into the

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doors to open it. The doors
don't weigh anything in space,

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so they're driven with
very small motors."

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The MDD is an open-truss
structure standing about 100ft
tall

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with platforms every 20ft. A
horizontal unit cantilevers

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70ft out from the
main tower units,

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guiding and controlling the
sling-back hoist mechanism

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that attaches to the orbiters
to raise and lower them.

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Three large hoists are used to
raise and lower the lift beams.

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Two of the hoists are connected
to the aft portion of the lift

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beam and one hoist is attached
to the beams forward section.

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The three hoists
operate simultaneously,

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and they can lift up
to 120 tons each.

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There are six stationary
platform levels, two moveable
Access/Service Platforms,

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one for each side
of the orbiter,

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and other smaller,
moveable platforms.

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"The old MDD was
grey and red. Now

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if you down there,
it's all grey".

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In 2004, Dryden took on
the enormous endeavor

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of removing the lead based paint
that covered the entire MDD.

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As part of a five-month
process, contractors blasted
the paint off the MDD.

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"The job was huge. There was so
much scaffolding and tenting.

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Once you got a hole in the tent,
you had to stop operations. No

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more blasting until it
was repaired because
there was some kind of

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positive ventilation
inside the tent that kept
the dust down instead

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of coming out. We were having,
you know, 4, 5, 6 days of 30
mph winds, constantly."

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By adding an ingredient
to the blasting material

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called Blastox,
over 200,000 lbs

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of waste material was

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spared from being sent to

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a waste management site.
Instead, the waste compound was

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sent to a Portland cement plant
where it was burned in a kiln.

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"It's a zinc finish,

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self healing... so if
it gets a scratch,

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somehow it grows and turns
back into... into a zinc.
It's amazing stuff."

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"Don't have much to do
with launch, but we know
we got it back there

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safe from the last time...
so, always a sense of
pride in everything."

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Despite the intermittent
landing schedule at Dryden,

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the support crew operating
the MDD has an astonishing
record of preparedness.

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"I'd like to think
of myself as a good

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American for doing that.

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All my guys down there feel
the same way I'm sure."

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"Yeah, you need to step
back at times and

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realize, wow, this is what I'm
doing,

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it's just a small group
of folks that do it."

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Throughout it's history, the
MDD and it's faithful crew

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had a 100% mission success
rate over it's 34 years of

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service to the Shuttle Program.

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"When I look back someday,
I know I'll think of these
times and realize just how

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fortunate I was to have worked
on the program and uh... it's

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just kind of nice
to know that uh,

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you know, you were a part
of uh... something big. So,