Huntsville, AL: Marshall Space Flight Center

Trying to shake the tiles off a shuttle

Rakyat Yang Baik posted
John Reichert They lift the shuttle over the top and lower down inside. 
The decks inside the building have a hinged portion in their center that hinges upward on hydraulic cylinders allowing the shuttle to pass through. 
There are 3 supports at grade the shuttle sits on.
The floor openings are in the shape of the shuttle depending on what elevation they are locate. The propose of this endeavor to the shake and vibrate the shuttle to test the adhesives that hold the tiles that provide protection for re entry through the atmosphere.
This facility is located in Huntsville AL.
Jim Browne Yeah, its their test facility in Huntsville, AL. You can see this building on Google Earth....think its on the southeast side of the facility. The derricks are permanent parts of the structure. Think it was originally built for the Saturn V, which is why its so tall compared to the shuttle.
Dennis DeBruler https://www.google.com/.../@34.6309149,-86.../data=!3m1!1e3

3D Satallite

It took me a while to find this. I started with the US Space & Rocket Center, but I quickly realized that was just a tourist center. Then I found the real facility. I zoomed in and started scanning for it. I hadn't noticed Jim Browne's comment, and I started from the north side. I noticed that some things have been torn down along Mercury Road.  It occurred to me that the firing stands and this building are probably away from the fancy office buildings, so I looked further south. Lots of little buildings with space between them means they make and/or store something that is highly explosive. Also, I wonder what they are liquidating. Old ICBMs?  When I looked at the 20 photos of the Historic Redstone Rocket Test Site, I noticed this building in some of the pictures. That made it easy to find this view.

There is some other interesting stuff around there.

3D Satellite

3D Satellite

Trying to tear apart a Saturn V ground test booster (S-IC-D)

The Worlds of David Darling posted
1966: Engineers and technicians at the Marshall Space Flight Center placed a Saturn V ground test booster (S-IC-D) into the dynamic test stand. The stand was constructed to test the integrity of the vehicle. Forces were applied to the tail of the vehicle to simulate the engines thrusting, and various other flight factors were fed to the vehicle to test reactions. The Saturn V launch vehicle, with the Apollo spacecraft, was subjected to more than 450 hours of shaking. The photograph shows the 300,000 pound S-IC stage being lifted from its transporter into place inside the 360-foot tall test stand. This dynamic test booster has one dummy F-1 engine and weight simulators are used at the other four engine positions.