Suggested Searches

Rocket Ranch - Episode 11: The Place that Sends Stuff to Space

Season 1Episode 11Jun 20, 2019

We're looking back at the Space Station Processing Facility, or SSPF, as it turns 25 years old.

Rocket Ranch podcast cover illustration

Rocket Ranch podcast cover illustration

Joshua Santora: It’s easy for take for granted the challenge of assembling the International Space Station at 17,500 miles per hour.

Charlie Quincy: If it gets to space and it doesn’t work, what do you do?

Joshua Santora: Next on the “Rocket Ranch.”

Launch Countdown Sequence: EGS Program Chief Engineer, verify no constraints to launch.

Three, two, one, and liftoff.

Welcome to space.

Joshua Santora: Amidst a flurry of new charges and ambitious goals for the future, we’re taking a few episodes to reflect on some past accomplishments as we reach noteworthy milestones. Next month, we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first steps on the Moon. For today, we’re looking back at the Space Station Processing Facility, or SSPF, as it turns 25 years old this weekend. Charlie Quincy is currently focused on research related to making space livable for people as the Life Science maturation manager here at the “Rocket Ranch.” And being involved in various phase of the SSPF since before it even existed, he has a wealth of experience and knowledge to share. We sat down to talk about some history and a bit of the future at this quarter-century milestone.

Alright, so I’m in the booth now with Charlie Quincy. Charlie, thanks for joining me today.

Charlie Quincy: It’s great to be here. I’m glad to talk about the SSPF and how it has progressed over the years.

Joshua Santora: Yeah, obviously, we’re going to dive in here to the Space Station Processing Facility in a minute, but I want to ask you a little bit about — What’s your role today and kind of how did you get to this point in your career?

Charlie Quincy: Well, I’m a adviser to Josie Burnett, the head of the ISS Research and Development organization. I’ve gotten there over kind of a twisted road that had led me from structural engineering, beginning at KSC, designing launch pad equipment for space shuttle, through the environmental program, through the Payload Processing program to the Life Sciences program. And then finally to a point where I’m kind of developing the plans for the next generation of activities that are going on at KSC.

Joshua Santora: So, we’re talking about SSPF, or Space Station Processing Facility, because we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary this month, so a really exciting time. Thinking about you and your time, I think I heard you say you started with NASA back in 1977. Is that correct?

Charlie Quincy: Actually, I started in the contracting world in 1977. I joined NASA in 1987, after the Challenger accident.

Joshua Santora: So, going back to when you started, 1977, did you find similar excitement transitioning from the Apollo-Soyuz to the Shuttle Program — what’s that like? Kind of recount — What’s the emotion? What’s the feeling of preparing for the space shuttle?

Charlie Quincy: Well, it’s almost identical. As a matter of fact, I had an opportunity to give Bob Crippen a tour of SSPF with a group of people that when was bringing through, and off to the side I mentioned to him, I said, “You know, it’s a lot like right before you and John — I mean, John Young flew back in the day.” Things are pretty exciting right now with the new boosters coming online, the new vehicles coming online, the crew capsules that we’re bringing online, and the potential for building Gateway as an add-on to the space station and going back to the Moon. I mean, things are really kind of rolling along pretty well right now for us as an agency, and I’m just happy to be part of it.

Joshua Santora: That’s awesome. So, thinking about the Space Station Processing

Facility — So, currently it sits in — Well, for most of the more recent history, it sits in the line of three major buildings for the Kennedy Space Center. We’ve had the headquarters building, the Operations and Checkout Building, and then the SSPF. And I know that before the SSPF stood in that space it was used for some pretty cool historical activities. Can you talk a little bit about kind of — what was that physical land used for?

Charlie Quincy: Well, when I got here it was beginning to be a bit overgrown, but that land and the building next to it, which is now the Engineering Development Laboratory, was actually a location where they had a number of the trainers that the astronauts used in preparations for their flights. They had a capsule simulator, a lander simulator, and then with the use of the buggy, they used to go out and actually drive on the land where SSPF is now built with the Moon buggy, so it has, really, some real historical significance to it. And it was one of the discussions they were having when it was originally cited back so many years ago that says, “This is pretty hallowed ground. Do we really want to build this here?” And the answer was a firm “Yes.” That plan was developed, and this when I first got involved in the SSPF was in the review of that plan that they had done and based on the Payload Processing experiences I had over the years, I was able to take a look at the plans, access how they would — you could actually operate in a building like this, and make appropriate adjustments to the plan at this early, early stage when it was just a bunch of drawings on a piece of paper, which is a lot easier than changing concrete and steel and things once it’s built. And I think it worked out very well. They accepted many of the suggestions I had for them at the time. And then that was kind of the end of my involvement, actually in SSPF for quite a number of years, because I had taken on a position with NASA to be the Facility Manager at the OPFs, which was an another processing facility —

Joshua Santora: The Orbiter Processing Facilities.

Charlie Quincy: Right. And it was a lot of fun out there, and some of the things we did were actually used in the construction period of the SSPF. The flooring in the SSPF — it’s the same flooring we have in the OPFs for reasons that — it’s conductive so you don’t get static electricity build-up on it. It also allowed the operating of the air bearings in the SSPF without potentially dealing with the tile that they had originally planned for the floor.

Joshua Santora: So, thinking about this being just another building — Obviously, you and I know that’s not true. It’s not just another building. So for those that haven’t seen it, for those that don’t know what this building is, why is it so special? What’s kind of the makeup? If they came in and saw this facility, what are the things that you’d show them?

Charlie Quincy: Well, this building was set up so that you could have eight separate development activities going on in the High Bay at the same time. And when I talk about a development activity, it’s about the size of what can go into the orbiter —

Joshua Santora: So, roughly the size of a school bus is kind of the analogy that we give a lot of the time.

Charlie Quincy: And then there were services that would provide each one of these locations, and it also allowed you to connect one location to another, both electronically and in some cases even physically, piping-wise and things like that, so you could actually check out the interface performance between the two modules that were being prepared for flight, which was of a tremendously important — I mean, I can’t overstate that, is how important it is to be able to check these interfaces, because if it gets to space and it doesn’t work, what do you do?

Joshua Santora: What do you do, Charlie?

Charlie Quincy: [ Laughs ]

Joshua Santora: Are we bringing it home, or are we —

Charlie Quincy: And that’s one of the most beautiful about the Space Station Processing Facility. It did enough testing so we never actually had to bring a module home.

Joshua Santora: Which is really good news. Well, unless we went and we meant to — We did bring a couple home that were meant to be up for temporary purposes, right?

Charlie Quincy: We brought LDEF back, which was a station-size activity…

Joshua Santora: Okay.

Charlie Quincy:…but we never really brought any of the main modules with the station back.

Joshua Santora: Awesome.

Charlie Quincy: They went up there, and they had been appropriately tested in preparation for flight so they really didn’t have to come back. The SSPF paid for itself in gold by making that, and I think in the future as we build Gateway and some of the other things going to the station, that’s going to be a role that SSPF will have as the agency moves forward.

Joshua Santora: I know that for the SSPF High Bay, it’s not just kind of like a warehouse space. It’s very specifically designed for the purposes — In addition to things like the power and just services, it’s also a really clean space. Is that true, and can you speak to — what does “clean” really mean?

Charlie Quincy: Well, there’s a lot of different ways to answer that question.

Joshua Santora: [ Laughs ]

Charlie Quincy: One is temperature and humidity. It’s controlled in that area very closely. It always has less than 50% humidity in it. It has the capability to raise the humidity level, should it get too low to keep static electricity from becoming a problem. It also has high filtration filters on it so that the dust particles are kept to a minimum. One of the things when you get into space flight is everything becomes weightless, all of the good stuff and all of the bad stuff.

Joshua Santora: [ Laughs ]

Charlie Quincy: So you want to be able to manage the dust and debris that you bring to orbit just as much as you want to be able to manage the bigger elements, because they end up floating around and clogging up the filters in your air conditioning system.

Joshua Santora: About the space station being an international collaboration, did we see international partners bring in their own modules into this space? Did everything kind of come through here, or did they kind of meet us on orbit?

Charlie Quincy: Well, all the things that were launched through shuttle…

Joshua Santora: Okay.

Charlie Quincy:…came through here. Some of the things that were launched through the Russian or the Japanese or the European launch complexes did not come through Kennedy, but the big modules did come through Kennedy, and all the power trusses, the U.S. Module, the Japanese Kibo module.

Joshua Santora: If you’ve seen the space station, we talk very proudly that it’s roughly the size of a football field with its massive solar arrays and truss structures and all that, like you said, came through there. So had we not built the SSPF, what had we been using prior to that building? What else could we have possibly done to succeed the way we did?

Charlie Quincy: Well, as I said, we had used the O&C Building for Skylab. We had a vertical processing facility for doing some of the vertical payloads that were launched — excuse me. They were brought to the pad vertically, and then sorted into the orbiter vertically, all the things that for station were brought to the OPF and installed into the orbiter horizontally. So it would have been a similar process as the O&C had. The O&C had four processing locations. The SSPF has eight. So you can do a parallel path, and there could be a lot more things in preparation at that facility.

Joshua Santora: So again, kind of like we said, we’re talking eight school — excuse me. We’re talking eight school-bus-sized structures that you have power and all sorts of support systems, too, that you can move around this space, connecting, disconnecting, testing, so a really large space, and, obviously, we need crane height as well, because they’re moving things in and around each other, so a nice big space there. How critical is Space Station Processing Facility to the space station being completed?

Charlie Quincy: Oh, the space station, in my opinion, wouldn’t have been completed without the Space Station Processing laboratory, because it is the logistics hub of which all the components had to flow through to get there. An airport is not an airplane, but you can’t get onto an airplane without going to the airport.

Joshua Santora: Sure. No, that’s awesome.

Charlie Quincy: And that’s kind of the way we have to look at it and say, “Okay, it was set up to make sure that everything came together, was tested in the configuration it needed to be tested in, and then packed and secured for insertion into the launch vehicle for delivery to space.

Joshua Santora: So, is the SSPF just this big High Bay space, or is there more to it, even beyond the High Bay structure where we have all these big pieces?

Charlie Quincy: Well, the big pieces are in the main function area, but there is a low bay where racks are brought and built up and prepared in smaller areas. And then there’s offline labs in and around the whole Bay where the smaller rack inserts are worked on by the science community, by the engineering community, by the technology community in preparation for what’s going to be put into the rack, which gets put into the module, which gets put into space.

Joshua Santora: Very cool. So, we finished with the really massive structures for space station about a decade ago, I think.

Charlie Quincy: Yes.

Joshua Santora: And we had a few other pieces we were taking up, kind of spares and backups and things through the end of the Shuttle Program in 2011. So for the last eight years, what has this facility been doing? Is it sitting, is it functional? What’s going on?

Charlie Quincy: Well, it’s still very functional. It’s assumed a bit different of a role. It’s more of a place where spares are prepared for station, where supplies are prepared for station for consumables. It’s also a place where we’ve been doing a lot of biological payload preparation for investigations to go on the station, and in some of the offline labs now we’re doing ground investigations that will enable us to potentially grow food on orbit to support exploration missions when nutrients and calories are more efficiently grown in place, then packed and shipped along with the rest of the cargo.

Joshua Santora: And as we think about, again, kind of this time leading up till now, what’s the current activity? What’s the latest and greatest for SSPF?

Charlie Quincy: Well, the latest and greatest right now is we have from my knothole, which is the plant work — We have put a veggie unit — two veggie units on station, and we’ve put the Advanced Plant Habitat on station, and we’ve put the a brick L.E.D. module on station so that we can do very contained experiments. We’re getting ready to put a GFP image — excuse me — a multi-spectrum imager on station so that we continually — to understand what’s happening biologically to things on station and incorporating the latest science tools for the science community into these pieces of hardware. That’s been very effective in getting Kennedy Space Center identified as the food development center for the agency, and it’s a role that the SSPF was really well suited to take on during this time frame. Now, will it stay that way forever? Probably not. I mean, one of the beautiful things about the facility as it was designed, it’s very adaptable to whatever the user community’s currently needing, and that’s kind of what we’re looking in the future, to say as different programs develop over the years, the changes that are made will be appropriate to what the needs are of the community.

Joshua Santora: So, naturally, I’ve got to ask what do you all anticipate? Because, obviously, you kind of mentioned your role as an adviser now. I’m sure you’re thinking about the future and what’s coming, so what do those conversations sound like and look like as far as who are you trying to either attract or just be ready for?

Charlie Quincy: Well, space exploration deals with different environments. On the ground, you can simulate a controlled environment system very well, and you can build things very closed and see how things do inside a very closed system. However, gravity exists on Earth.

Joshua Santora: Sure. [ Laughs ]

Charlie Quincy: So you want to go to low-Earth orbit to look at, “What is the gravity effect on things as they develop?” Now as we move further out into the deeper space regions, the radiation levels are going up, so you want to see what impact the increased radiation levels have on your biologically systems. And then in an area that we don’t know a lot about right now is magnetic fields.

Joshua Santora: Okay.

Charlie Quincy: We live in a nice magnetic field.

Joshua Santora: Yeah, we sure do.

Charlie Quincy: The compass always points north and south for us. But when you get up by the Moon, that’s not necessarily true. The magnetic field of that area are not there. I mean, we’ve tried to pull centrifuges to understand some of the micro — partial gravity effects. But the Moon will give us the first best opportunity to see one-sixth G in a very stable, long-living environment. So these are the areas of science that I think are going to be the most fruitful from a biological systems standpoint.

Joshua Santora: And so, are you looking to –

Charlie Quincy: And those are the things I’m trying to build the systems in place that will allow us to do those investigations.

Joshua Santora: And that was my question — So, is that really what you’re trying to do, trying to create some sort of a infrastructure on Earth that will enable people to go do that?

Charlie Quincy: And build the systems for Station and identify the systems we would want to move out to Gateway, the systems we would want to have on the lunar surface so that we can begin to kind of compare the data across all of those different environments and really begin to piece out the effect of each of the environments?

Joshua Santora: Yeah. People are undoubtedly — Whether they’re similar or not, they’re going to draw comparisons between Space Station and Gateway. And so are you all having conversations about, “Hey, we’re the Space Station Processing Facility. We can’t see not playing a role in Gateway”?

Charlie Quincy: I think Gateway is just an extension of — I mean, if low-Earth orbit is a laboratory, then a stable lunar orbit — It has to be a laboratory, too, because the conditions are different in both locations.

Joshua Santora: Mm.

Charlie Quincy: And so as we move further out, I think the role that the SSPF has had in low-Earth orbit can be very easily expanded to deep space environments.

Joshua Santora: And so are you all preparing to be ready to receive segments to Gateway, to process them like you do with — excuse me, with Space Station?

Charlie Quincy: That’s our hope. The programs are still very much in the formative stages right now.

Joshua Santora: Sure.

Charlie Quincy: We’re back in 1986 again. [ Both laughing ] But I think in the long run that’s the way it will all come out. And I would suspect that as low-Earth orbit becomes more commercialized and the commercial community begins to bring things to low-Earth orbit that the Space Station Processing Facility will become an important component of that activity also.

Joshua Santora:So right now, we’re flying a bunch of cargo and supplies and things to Space Station. Right now, I think our main sources are the Northrop Grumman and Terry’s rocket. We have SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon, and then we still have the Soyuz, and is there a fourth? I feel like there’s a… Are the Japanese flying cargo to Space Station for us?

Charlie Quincy: But they’re flying out of Japan.

Joshua Santora: Understood.

Charlie Quincy: But we do ship things to Japan, so the logistics component of bringing things out of our storages and moving it to Japan and to the various launch sites is an ongoing activity for us.

Joshua Santora: Yeah, that was my question of just like, so we have these four main capabilities of getting to space station today, so we are actively sending things to Virginia. Wallops is where Northrop Grumman is flying, here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with SpaceX, and then to Kazakhstan, and then Japan as well.

Charlie Quincy: Right.

Joshua Santora: So we’re shipping things overseas to get them to space station?

Charlie Quincy: Yes. We’re also preparing for the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser, which will be another cargo deliverer to station, which will have a unique capability, and it will actually land on the runway the way the shuttle did, and we will be able to get biological samples back into the laboratories much quicker than we are right now and being much more analogous to where we were when we were bringing things back on shuttle.

Joshua Santora: So does that diverse capability make things better or more difficult in the long run? Because you’re dealing with more diverse — literally cargo ships. You’re dealing with having to cross oceans to get things to the correct vehicle. So what’s the general feeling of perspective on that?

Charlie Quincy: I just think it’s just people have accepted that as a way of doing business. I mean, this is a global — The building of station with the global community and processing it through the SSPF has made that community — It’s opened up that community to everybody, and we just feel like we’re all kind of in the whole game together.

Joshua Santora: Do you feel like you’re seeing that community grow? Are we seeing more people kind of getting interested in begin able to have a vested interest in the laboratory in space?

Charlie Quincy: I believe so. Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on outside the gate — [ Both laughing ] But —

Joshua Santora:You’re busy? [ Laughs ]

Charlie Quincy: We’re busy, and you always want to believe that you have the best activity and the best minds going, but the broader community is becoming very interested in what we’re doing, and we have no problem developing partnerships in the broader community, so I think that’s an indication that the community is interested in what we’re doing and very supportive of what we’re doing.

Joshua Santora: You kind of mentioned a little bit of your history in organizations. It seems like you’ve done a little bit of everything. Is there anything you haven’t done yet that you really want to do?

Charlie Quincy: No, but this is one of the more exciting times that Kennedy Space Center has had and the agency as a whole has had in quite a number of years, and I’m just excited to be here. You get to a point in your career where you say, “Well, I could retire, but do I really want to retire?” I mean, this is what you live your whole life to do, and we’re getting to plan out the next 25 or 30 years of activity right now, and that’s exciting.

Joshua Santora: Awesome. Cool. Well, Charlie, thank you for joining me today. It was a pleasure getting to speak with you. Again, congrats to you and the entire team that has worked and is working in the SSPF. 25 years, here’s to 25 more. It’s really exciting stuff.

Charlie Quincy: It really is, and we’re very happy. Thank you.

Joshua Santora: The world of space exploration looks so different than it did in 1994. This facility promises to continue to play a critical role in our quest to return to the Moon. I’m Joshua Santora, and that’s our show. Thanks for stopping by the “Rocket Ranch,” and special thanks to our guest, Charlie Quincy. To learn more about space station activities, visit nasa.gov/station. For more on our quest to return to the Moon, visit nasa.gov/moontomars. And to learn more about everything going on at the Kennedy Space Center, go to nasa.gov/kennedy. Check out NASA’s other podcasts to learn more about what’s happening at all of our centers at nasa.gov/podcasts. A special shout-out to our producer, John Sackman, our soundman Lorne Mathre, editor Michelle Stone, and special thanks to Leejay Lockhart.

And remember: on the rocket ranch…even the sky isn’t the limit.