Dimensions: 218 × 158 m, 160 m tall. Compare to Statue of Liberty, 93 m tall.
Volume: 3,665,000 cu m. Compare to Pentagon, 2,181,000 cu m.
Features: 4 high bays for assembly and checkout of launch vehicles with spacecraft, low bays for checkout of individual stages. 4 high bay doors, opening height 139 m. 71 lifting devices. 2 bridge cranes of 227-metric-ton capacity. 9,070 metric tons of air conditioning, 125 ventilators.
Construction: 89,400 metric tons of steel, 49,700 cu m of concrete. 4,225 open-end steel pipe piles, 0.4 m diameter, driven to depth of 49 m. Siding of 100,800 sq m of insulated aluminum panels and 6,500 sq m of plastic panels.
Cost of construction: $11,7000,000.
Launch Control Center (LCC)
The 4-story, electronic brain of LC-39, the LCC was built adjacent to the VAB and 5.6 km from pad A. During launch, 62 TV cameras provided closed-circuit pictures to 100 monitor screens in the LCC. The LCC was connected to the mobile launchers by a high-speed data link.
1st floor: offices, cafeteria, shops.
2d floor: telemetry, RF and tracking equipment, instrumentation, data reduction and evaluation equipment.
3d floor: 4 firing rooms, one for each of the high bays in the VAB. Each active room had 470 sets of control and monitoring equipment.
4th floor: conference and display rooms, offices, mechanical equipment. Cost of construction: $10,000,000.
Mobile Launchers (3)
Weight: 5715 metric tons, with unfueled vehicle.
Height (on pedestals): 136 m to top of crane.
Launch platform: 2-story steel structure 49 × 41 m, 7.6 m high. Exhaust hole 14 m square. 4 hold-down arms, each 18100 kg, held rocket ver- tical during thrust buildup, approximately 8.9 seconds to reach 95,070 of total thrust. Platform supported by 6 steel pedestals 7 meters high when in VAB or on pad. 4 additional extensible columns used at pad, to stiffen platform during firing.
Umbilical tower, mounted on platform, 18 levels, 2 elevators. 9 swing (service) arms for personnel access, propellant, electrical, pneumatic, and instrumentation lines. Arms weighed 15,900-23,600 kg, length 13.7-18.3 m. Top arm (9) used by astronauts to enter spacecraft. 4 arms retracted before liftoff, 5 at T - 0.
Cost of construction: $33,963,000.
Transporters (2)
Used to move mobile launcher, with assembled space vehicle, from VAB to pad, also to move mobile service structure to and from pad.
Weight: 2,720 metric tons, largest tracked vehicle known.
Dimensions: 35 × 40 m, with top deck about size of baseball infield; height, 6-8 m.
4 double-tracked crawlers each 3 m high, 12 m long. 8 tracks per transporter, 57 shoes per track. Each tread shoe (or link in the track) weighed 0.9 metric ton.
Power: 16 traction motors powered by four 1,000-kw generators, driven by 2 diesel engines; two 750-kw generators, driven by 2 diesel engines for jacking, steering, lighting, ventilating; two 150-kw generators for power to the mobile launcher.
Maximum speed: 1.6 km/ hr loaded, 3.2 unloaded. Pad-to-VAB trip time, loaded, 7 hrs.
Levelling: top of space vehicle kept vertical within ± 10 of are, includling negotiation of 5% grade leading up to pad.
Cost of construction: $13,600,000.
Mobile Service Structure (1)
Weight: 4,760 metric tons.
Height: 125 m.
Elevators: 2 for personnel and equipment in tower, 1 from ground to base work area.
Work platforms: 2 self-propelled, 3 fixed. Top 3 platforms served spacecraft, bottom 2 served Saturn V.
Parking position during launch: 2100 m from pad A. Cost of construction: $11,600,000.
Crawlerway
Length: VAB to pad A, 5,500 m; VAB to pad B, 6,800 m.
Width: 2 lanes, each 12 m, separated by 15 m median.
Depth: average 2 m.
Cost of construction: $7,500,000.
Launch Pads (2)
Construction: 52,000 cu m of concrete, roughly octagonal in shape. 2 pads are virtually identical, 2,660 m apart.
Flame trench: 13 m deep, 18 m wide, 137 m long.
Flame deflector: 635 metric tons, 12 m high, 15 m wide, 23 m long. Lighting: 40 xenon high-intensity searchlights in 5 clusters around perimeter.
Emergency Egress System: 61-m escape tube from mobile launcher platform to blast-resistant room 12 m below pad, which contained survival supplies for 20 persons for 24 hours. Also, cab on slidewire from 98-m level to revetment 763 m away.