Schweiss was honored to complete two rocket hangar doors at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The hangar doors, six and seven stories tall respectively, are two of the largest in company history. The two great big doors were ordered to Launch Complex 39A, where reusable rockets are launched, landed on oceanic drone ships and returned to Cape Canaveral for reuse.
Kennedy Space Center, on the southeast coast of Florida, provides access to a wide range of low and medium inclination orbits frequently used by communications and Earth-observing satellites and supply missions to the ISS (International Space Station). The launch site also allows access to geostationary orbits, as well as departures to the moon and other interplanetary destinations for space tourism and entrepreneurship.
The 150 mph wind rated doors at Kennedy Space Center are quite an accomplishment, even when eclipsed by the astonishing spacecraft. The larger door is 90 ft. wide x 60 ft. tall, equipped with auto-latches, four bottom-drive 480 volt, 3-phase motors and 31 patented Schweiss lift straps. The door requires tremendous power to lift, weighing in at 53,000 lbs. The taller 40 ft. wide x 69 ft. tall door required three powerful motors, 16 liftstraps, five internal trusses and one external truss to lift.
The Schweiss engineering team spared no expense to make sure that every launch from the hangar is a success. That’s the type of planning and control you can expect from Schweiss Doors.
