The loading and unloading device ( Docking and undocking device , English Mate-Demate Device, MDD ) is a specialized crane installation designed and created for lifting and lowering Shuttles and Buranas on a carrier aircraft .
USA
In the United States, 4 such installations were mounted - at the Edwards airbase , in the space center named after Kennedy , at Vandenberg Air Force Base (relocated to US Air Force Plant No. 42 in Palmdale, Calif.) And finally demolished in 2008). For unloading in places where there was no special infrastructure, it was assumed that a couple of crane installations would perform its functions. For this, a mobile unit for loading and unloading was prepared for Enterprise.
Atlantis is set on a plane, California
MDD Material Handling Unit, Florida
Vandenberg-based MDD prototype
Mobile installation for loading and unloading docked to Enterprise
USSR
Under the MTKK Buran program, similar designs were developed and manufactured in the USSR - lifting and landing devices ( lifting and gantry devices ) PKU-50 and PU-100, lifting and mounting unit PUA-100. At the time of the first flight, such devices were mounted at LII aerodromes, Yubileiny airfield, and Bezymyanka airfield .
Links
- NASA Dryden Fact Sheet - Shuttle Mate-Demate Device (MDD) . NASA Date of treatment November 16, 2011. Archived January 23, 2013.
- (English) [1]
- (English) Steven Siceloff. Teams Practice Lifting Shuttles at Airports . NASA (August 4, 2011). Date of treatment November 16, 2011. Archived January 23, 2013.
- Transportation of the Buran orbital ship (OK) on the Buran.ru website