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MUSIC

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So the Launch Vehicle Stage

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Adapter is being built at

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Marshall Space Flight Center in

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Huntsville Alabama. The adapter

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is part of the Space Launch

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System building the most powerful

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rocket in the history of space

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craft. The Launch Vehicle Adapter

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sits on top of the core stage and

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connects to the upper stage

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inside this launch system. The

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LVSA is comprised of two

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rings and a forward and aft cone.

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We have the forward ring which

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is a forging machined down into a

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ring and we have the aft flange

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which is a segmented welded

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flange we did here at Marshall.

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Machine shop is now machining it

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down to its final configuration

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to be welded at a later date. We

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have forward and aft cone

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segments. We currently have

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welded up the forward cone

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complete. It’s in for inspection

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now. With a cone, if you if you

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need to hit a certain height you

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have to go to a certain diameter.

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So there is a challenge involved

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in that and what we have taken

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advantage of recently is white

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light scanning and marrying it

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with laser tracker. Friction stir

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welding, it is not the time to

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weld that takes all the time, it

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is the setup of fixturining, the

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holding of parts. There is a lot

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of expertise going into that.

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The weld its is self is really,

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if you see one you’ve seen them

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all. So here is a fun piece of

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trivia; when we have completed

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all the friction stir welding on

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the LVSA cones and made a full

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item, we will have done 450 feet

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linear feet of friction stir

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welding. And that is equivalent

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to a football field and a half.

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So if you were to run the length

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of a football field you would have

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to go one and a half times to

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have done the same amount of

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friction stir welding that we are

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going to have on the LVSA. The

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most complicated thing that we

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are going to deal with building

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LVSA is welding the forward 14

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foot cone to the aft 14 foot cone.

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But that is going to be the

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biggest challenge, trying to meet

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the parallelism and flatness of

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the forward and aft flange…

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welding that center joint. We

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have got a tremendous amount of

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money invested in the forward

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cone and tremendous amount of

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money invested in the aft cone