TARGET 151223

NASA’S EMERGENCY EGRESS FACILITY

The Blast Room
The Blast Room

Let’s pretend that you’re an astronaut. You’re sitting in the capsule atop several tons of highly explosive fuel. The ignition sequence has already begun and the initial flames are coming out of the rocket nozzles at ground level. It's too late to abort the launch, now.

Let's further pretend that suddenly, a voice comes through your earphones saying,
"Uh, Commander, we have a problem."

Something has gone wrong with some valve or connection somewhere beneath you and they think that the world’s largest fuel tank (on which you're sitting) is about to explode. If it does, it could totally vaporize the missile, the entire launch pad, everything within half a mile of the launch pad, the capsule you're in, and oh, by the way... you.

There is no way you can get back to the safety of the bunker, which is a mile or so away, or even get far enough away to be out of the blast zone before it all blows up.

So, what do you do?

Well, that situation never really happened, of course, but thankfully, the men and women who designed the NASA launch facility dealt with "scenarios" - that is, "What if’s...". In their design, they asked every "What if..." imaginable, and one of those "what ifs..." was the one in which you, the pretend astronaut, find yourself at this pretend moment. And the answer to that "What if..." resulted in your remote viewing target for today.



Deep below launch Pad 39A at Kennedy there is a haven of safety for the astronauts and those members of the launch team who must stay at the structure right up until launch time. It consists of a room in which the astronauts and ground crew could be protected from the blast. That room is called "The Blast Room". Afterwards, they would continue in greater comfort and safety in a room called "The Rubber Room".

Access to this mysterious underground bunker had been very limited over the years, but after the end of the Shuttle Program and dis-arming of the launch pads, access has become a little bit easier, but only by special, pre-arranged and guided tour.


Launch pads 39A and 39B There are actually two of these Rubber and Blast Rooms, built to identical specifications, one under launch pad 39A (top of picture) and another under 39B. The rooms under 39B are closed off due to the peeling lead-based paints, which were commonly used during the Apollo era. Luckily, a different contractor built the rooms under launch pad 39A and used non-lead based paint. It is in much better condition and is the target for this week's Target of the Week. In fact, much of the information for this feedback came from an article witten for SpaceflightNow

Launch Pad 39A was the starting point of all the Saturn V rockets to the moon except for Apollo 10. Before each mission, each astronaut was trained on how to use the "Rubber room". An exploding Saturn V missile was calculated to have the power of a small nuclear bomb and an explosion would have completely destroyed the 36-story rocket and leveled the launch pad.

NASA needed to come up with a series of contingencies that would keep astronauts and pad workers safe in the case of any suspected problem that might lead to an explosion. One of these contingencies was the "rubber room", a room located 40ft under the launch pad.

The room was accessed via a 200ft long slide from the base of the mobile launch platform (MLP). In the event of a possible explosion, astronauts would have exited the capsule and entered into a rapid descent elevator that would have got them to the base of the MLP in 30 seconds. After reaching the base, they would jump into the slide taking them to the Rubber room. After arriving inside the Rubber room, they would take a few short steps over to a vault-like room called "the Blast Room", closing the armored door behind them.

The Blast room has is completely separated from the earth around it and its floor is mounted on a series of springs. It has 20 chairs, enough for the astronauts and closeout crew, and was stocked to accommodate everyone inside for 24 hours.

But there is still that problem of the time it takes for the astronauts to disengage themselves from the capsule and that maddening 30-second elevator ride before they could get to the slide. Because of those delays, the room was primarily designed for the close-out crew. For very immediate emergencies, another much cheaper and more basic escape route was also provided: baskets attached to slide wires that would take them away from the pad and to safety, similar to the zip lines used by people wanting the experience of sliding quickly over canyons or forests on a wire.


The Environmental Control Systems Room

If you go on a tour of the facility, you will be coming into it in the opposite direction than the astronauts and crew would have. You enter into the Environmental Control Systems Room (ECS), this room is responsible for producing the clean air that is fed into the Mobile Launch Platform, Payload Change-out Room and other portions of the pad.


The doors to the Blast Room

After walking past a series of blowers and piping, you walk through a steel door and in front of you; you immediately notice the large bank vault looking door that leads you into the domed blast room.


The Blast Room

The Blast Room has two entrances (when coming from the other direction, as the astronauts and crew would have done), each with a thick, vault-like door. One leads into the Rubber Room and the other leads into the egress (exit) tunnel (shown below).

The chamber has 20 chairs, a toilet and carbon dioxide scrubbing equipment to keep the occupants alive intil rescue teams arrived. The carbon dioxide scrubbing equipment was there as another contingency, just in case the air equipment was damaged in the blast. In such a case, those who would be in the room would be using up their oxygen and would need air scrubbers to keep from asphixiating. The planners thought of everything.


The layout of the facility




The Rubber Room

Upon entering the dimly lit Rubber Room, it is easy to see how the room got it name. While it was not designed for style or luxury, it provided a safe place for sleeping, moving around, and provided less confinement. The walls and floor are completely covered in rubber over a soft cushion that was meant to absorb any vibrations of the blast. The room has been virtually left untouched since the end of Apollo and is in surprisingly good condition. The rubber floor and walls are still soft to the touch and the floor is still spongy underfoot.


"Emergency egress route"

If the blast had not destroyed the escape route, rescue teams would enter through the Egress Tunnel, and anyone trapped inside the Rubber Room would leave thorough it, as well, to an exit leading to ground level, twelve hundred feet(366 meters) away from the pad.

Although the Blast Room and Rubber Room never had to be used, they still serve as somewhat of a time-capsule into the earlier history of the U.S. space program, and the thinking and planning that went into every thinkable contingency for the safety of astronauts and crew.

FEEDBACK MAP



If you got impressions for which this feedback is insufficient, more information,
pictures and videos can be found at the following web sites:

Space Safety Magazine's 360 degree interactive tour of the facility
Interactive tour of Launch Pad 39A (without the Rubber Room facility)
Wikipedia


Many thanks to Ray McClure for this target.