A liquid oxygen storage tank, with a view of the mobile launcher on the pad surface in the background, is photographed at Launch Pad 39B on Nov. 8, 2019, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The agency’s Exploration Ground Systems oversaw testing of the pad’s cryogenic systems – the infrastructure that will support the flow of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen from the storage tanks to the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket – in preparation for the launch of SLS with the Orion spacecraft atop for the uncrewed Artemis I mission. Each of the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tanks can hold more than 800,000 gallons of propellant. The liquid oxygen will require the use of pumps to push it from the tank to the rocket, while the lighter liquid hydrogen will make its way up to the pad using gaseous hydrogen to pressurize the sphere.
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NASA ID
KSC-20191108-PH-JBS01_0112
Date Created
November 8, 2019
Center
KSC
Media Type
image
Photographer
NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Location
Mobile Launcher, Launch Complex
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