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[Music]

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all right good afternoon everybody and

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welcome to our Artemis week here a

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special edition for you I'm Joshua

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Santora coming to you immediately with

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my special guest

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Regina Spellman Regina thanks for

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joining me today hi I'm happy to be here

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yeah so we are talking all week about

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the Artemis program in Greek mythology

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the twin sister of Apollo because we're

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going back to the moon such a cool nod

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there and Regina obviously your title

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their senior project manager for 39b

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which is this beauty you see on screen

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let's throw up an image here and we can

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talk more about this as we go but how

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did you get this job and when did you

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start kind of managing this effort yes

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she is beautiful isn't she she's right

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up there with my son I I tell you

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growing up in Indiana and you would tell

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me that I was going to be working on

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this project and you know really looking

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towards developing a launchpad to

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support the next generation of rockets

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for NASA's mission I would would have

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been a non-believer but you know I

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started out in engineering I went to

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Purdue University and I worked with at

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NASA Langley actually which is more of a

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Research Center and I came down to

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Kennedy Space Center at the beginning of

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what was constellation program and

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started working in systems engineering

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and my way up into project management

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had some really good people that I

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worked with and and lo and behold Here I

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am now as a senior project manager and

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I'm responsible for all the development

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activity out at launch complex 39b

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yes so when we talk about that also kind

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of recapping to that image that I showed

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a minute ago and this video you see on

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screen now these lightning towers are

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600 feet tall so this is by no means a

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small space here so what's the history

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of this launch pad because it has a very

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long history yeah you're right and and

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the launch complex 39b is is about two

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miles to get all the way around it to

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give you a little bit of perspective of

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the scale of that and like you said the

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towers being 600 feet tall it's it's a

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big place but it's only a piece of the

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exploration systems architecture the

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first image you had had the mobile

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launcher that's what will actually stack

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the vehicle

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and do the connections and that

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architecture that we have is similar to

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what they used in the Apollo program

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which is when this pad was actually

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built when they started the Apollo

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program they built two pads so when we

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refer to LC 39 there's a pad a and a pad

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B pad a was built first and and pad B

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completed construction in 1967 just

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behind it right in time to support the

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the dry run for Apollo 11 we just had

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the anniversary for Apollo 11 landing on

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the moon and pad B was used as the for

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Apollo 10 which was a dry run for it in

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just a few months prior so you know pad

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B and pad a both have a long history of

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supporting the Apollo program and then

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they were both transitioned to support

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those the shuttle program and they were

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used in tandem 53 launches actually of

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the shuttle program went off of pad B

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and then towards the end is when the two

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twin pad started to diverge we started

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to modify pad B for what was then

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constellation which has become

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exploration ground systems with SLS and

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Orion and then pad a got transitioned

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over to SpaceX because we're now a

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multi-user spaceport and SpaceX has a

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very different architecture than we do

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so they have done different things at

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pad a so the two twin pads no longer

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look alike they are have different

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missions now but we have kind of taken

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both of those paths to the next

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generation yeah and and one of the

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biggest things they're kind of thinking

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about image I just showed of the shuttle

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program people who are really have a

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keen eye they'll notice that all those

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structures that were there in place are

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now gone and what we call a clean pad

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design can you tell us more about why we

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say clean pad I think you kind of have

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some specifics there as far as what that

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means dirty version yeah yeah it's not

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it's not versus dirty it's clean isn't

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simple and streamlined that's what we're

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going for the architecture of our launch

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vehicles has evolved on our ground

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systems architecture we're more similar

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to what they used in Apollo where you

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have a mobile launcher with a tower and

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you have the vehicle all the connections

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to the vehicle are done in the safety of

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the Vehicle Assembly Building and that's

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out to the launch pad and that way you

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don't have those large structures at the

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pad they tried something different in

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the space shuttle program and had the

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fixed service structure the rotating

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service structure but we've found out

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over you know 20-some years that even

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though the ocean is beautiful it's also

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the salt air which is very corrosive

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which is a maintenance nightmare so we

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had a lot of maintenance that we had to

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do a lot of costs so we went back to

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something similar to the Apollo

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architecture where we bring all of that

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with us and we keep all of that inside

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the Vehicle Assembly Building and the

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other added benefit of that is then what

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you actually see on the pad surface is

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very neutral so that also enables other

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launch companies to come out there and

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use that same pad and they can have

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their own custom connections to the

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vehicle on their mobile launcher so as

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we think about that clean pad design and

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going from all those giant structures

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that were fixed in place to a simple

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design what's that process been like

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because obviously I mean you you kind of

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think of it as being almost just a

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demolition process is it that simple of

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just hey rip it all out and we're done I

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want to say I wish but it to get to

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something simple actually takes a lot of

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work so you're right one of the first

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things we did have to do was to go in

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there and demolition it but when you

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have you know two different generations

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of programs out there some of that

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structure and some of those systems are

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still useful and we didn't want to start

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with a you know blank piece of paper so

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you know the pad surface and a lot of

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those structures that are there the

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large spheres that you see on the

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perimeter the liquid hydrogen liquid

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oxygen spheres those are original and so

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you know we basically kept what was

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could be used and did a lot of

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refurbishment to it or we updated it and

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where we didn't have something existing

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already

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we actually have gone in and put in new

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systems so when you're out there at the

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pad today you will see all three

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generations of programs working in

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concert together to meet our SLS and

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Orion objectives yeah that's awesome so

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can you talk about some of the specifics

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what are things what are the highlights

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of this process I'm thinking about the

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things that are new maybe not

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necessarily shiny but definitely new and

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ready for the next enter

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rockets yeah we jump it nothing shiny at

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the pad it's definitely a working

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environment but some of the really

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visible ones obviously the demolition of

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the fixed service structure and rotating

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service structure I mean those were

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sentimental as well those were visual

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images of the shuttle program so it was

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difficult to see that come down but

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understanding what the future hold is

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you know really what kind of drove us

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through that we also you know in gearing

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up towards you know SLS is going to be

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the most powerful rocket ever so we had

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to upsize some of it so with the flame

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trench the flame deflector have been

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completely redone the bricks were

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original apollo-era bricks we replace

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all of those we put in a new flame

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deflector that could take the massive

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thrust from the SLS and actually

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designed it to be able to support any

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American rocket that's launching today

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that we knew of so you know we're trying

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to not only up size but we're also

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trying to keep that multi-user spaceport

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in mind we've we've built three they

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mentioned the lightning towers those

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that lightning protection system was one

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of the first things we did that decides

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to support any rocket that could leave

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the Vehicle Assembly Building that's why

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they're so big so not knowing what would

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come we built as big as we could what we

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would need to for the Vehicle Assembly

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Building but that provides us protection

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at the pad that we've never had before

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and the whole idea is trying to enable

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our launch director to have every

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opportunity possible to get that vehicle

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on the off the ground at the first

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opportunity yeah we have this video view

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those highlights for you and just

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wondering what you can tell us about

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this obviously 96,000 that's no small

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number of bricks yeah so yeah in this

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video here you see that well as the

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time-lapse of them erecting that that

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flame deflector and the ignition

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overpressure sound suppression system

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we're doing a water flow test of that

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and then in the front there you can see

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the new bricks when the mobile launcher

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was out there we tested that same system

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but really she's had a complete makeover

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there's not a system out there that

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hasn't been touched refurbished or

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replaced you know 450 years old she's

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looking fantastic she's had a complete

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makeover has been really upgraded and

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she's ready to go to get that first

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launch party this one off in 2021

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yeah awesome again important there to

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list that day 2021 for the first flight

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and obviously we know that weird

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clared ready for artemis one so is your

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job done is it just like we're good here

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or what's next

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and and some of these projects you know

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we've been renovating this pad for over

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ten years now

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and we really had to focus on artemis

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one there are a few projects that were

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needed for the flight crew because we

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weren't going to need those for the

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first launch we've deferred them and

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we're doing them now so we're actually

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in new construction i we showed the the

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big sphere that's eight hundred thousand

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gallons of liquid hydrogen but again

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trying to get our launch sir director

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every attempt in order to get her three

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attempts twenty four hours apart when we

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have crew we're building a new liquid

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hydrogen sphere that's going to be 1.4

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million gallons and we need both of

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those together to get those three

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attempts we're also building the

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emergency egress system which if

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something would happen on launch day

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that enables our flight crew to get out

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to safety quickly and that's a system

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that we're currently designing so you

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know we've done everything we needed to

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do for Artemus one but we are in the

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thick of the new development projects

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for Artemus two and it's really trying

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to get you know to that end goal of

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getting that first woman a man on the

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moon in 2024 awesome good Regina

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appreciate you and all the hard work

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that you and your teams are putting in

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we are excited to see this thing fly and

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certainly I'm sure element for you

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absolutely all right for everybody out

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there watching please be sure to tune in

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to the rest of our episodes this week

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we're touching on our rocket the Space

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Launch System the Kennedy Space Center

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at large and what we've done to be be

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ready the Orion space capsule and then

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some of the work to be done on the moon

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as we as we go there with the sustained

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presence with our eyes on Mars

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thanks for Gina appreciate you thanks

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Josh was good to be here