A close-up, front view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in the Mate-Demate Device (MDD) as technicians prepare the orbiter for its ferry flight from NASA's Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility.
EC90-065-13
A close-up, front view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in the Mate-Demate Device (MDD) as technicians prepare the orbiter for its ferry flight from NASA’s Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility (later, the Dryden Flight Research Center) to the Kennedy Space Center, FL. The 100-foot-high, steel-truss, cantilevered facility is capable of precision positioning more than 220,000 pounds and is used to raise the orbiters onto jacks for ferry-flight servicing, and then hoist them higher to mate them atop the NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).
Shuttle Crew: Commander John O. Creighton; Pilot John H. Casper; and Mission Specialists Richard M. Mullane, David C. Hilmers, and Pierre J. Thuot.March 1990
NASA / Photo