Space Station Processing Facility
The SSPF includes two processing bays, an airlock, operational control rooms, laboratories, logistics areas for equipment and machines, office space, a ballroom and conference halls, and a cafeteria. The processing areas, airlock, and laboratories are designed to support non-hazardous Space Station and Space Shuttle payloads in 100,000 class clean work areas. The building has a total floor area of 42,500 m (457,000 sq ft).
History and construction
During the re-designing phase of Space Station Freedom in early 1991, Congress approved new plans for NASA to lead the project and begin manufacturing its components for the future International Space Station. Kennedy Space Center was selected as the ideal launch processing complex for the ISS, as well as hosting all the internationally manufactured modules and station elements.
However the Operations and Checkout Building (which was originally to be the prime factory for station launch processing) was insufficient in size to accommodate all the components. On March 26, 1991, engineers at Kennedy Space Center; along with contractor Metric Constructions Inc. of Tampa Florida, broke ground on a new $56 million Space Station Processing Facility, situated adjacent to the O&C. The design called for a 457,000-square-foot multifunction building housing an enormous processing bay, laboratories, control rooms, staging areas, communications and control facilities, and office space for some 1,400 NASA and contractor employees.
KSC Deputy Director Gene Thomas described the construction: "The skyline around here is really going to change. This will be the biggest facility that we have built since the Apollo days". The SSPF used reinforced concrete and some 4,300 tons of steel. The building was structurally completed and topped out by mid 1992.
After three years of construction, interior fitting and equipment set-up, the SSPF formally opened on June 23, 1994.
Into the 21st century, more commercial partners began using the SSPF for projects unrelated to the ISS. In addition, after the announcement of discontinuing ISS operations beyond 2030 (leading to its planned de-orbit in 2031), the SSPF increasingly became a space for general space systems rather than specifically tailoring to the ISS. Due to these reasons, in December 2023, the facility was renamed from the Space Station Processing Facility to the Space Systems Processing Facility, keeping the same acronym.
Operations and manufacturing processes
At the SSPF, space station modules, trusses and solar arrays are prepped and made ready for launch. The low and high bays are fully air conditioned and ambient temperature is maintained at 12 °C (54 °F) at all times. Workers and engineers wear full non-contaminant clothing while working. Modules receive cleaning and polishing, and some areas are temporarily disassembled for the installation of cables, electrical systems and plumbing. In another area, shipments of spare materials are available for installation. International Standard Payload Rack frames are assembled and welded together, allowing the installation of instruments, machines and allowing science experiment boxes to be fitted. Once racks are fully assembled, they are hoisted by a special manually operated robotic crane and carefully maneuvered into place inside the space station modules. Each rack weighs from 700 to 1,100 kg, and connect inside the module on special mounts with screws and latches.
Cargo bags for MPLM modules are filled with their cargo such as food packages, science experiments and other miscellaneous items on-site in the SSPF, and loaded into the module by the same robotic crane and strapped in securely.
Many of the builders accompanied their modules from around the world during their manufacturing, and worked at KSC for months to years during final assembly. Many ISS modules were renamed after successfully launching.
Station Integration Testing
Regarding the launch of modules of the International Space Station (ISS), there had been philosophical differences for years between designers and payload processors whether to ship-and-shoot or perform integration testing prior to launch. The former involved building a station module and launching it without ever physically testing it with other modules. The integration testing was not originally in the ISS plan, but in 1995 Johnson Space Center designers began to consider it and embedding KSC personnel at module factories. Multi-Element Integration Testing (MEIT) of ISS modules at KSC was officially in the books in 1997.
Three MEIT and one Integration Systems Test (IST) tests were conducted for the ISS, taking about three years from planning to completion and closure:
- MEIT1: US Lab, Z1 truss, P6 truss, and a Node 1 emulator
- Planning began in 1997, Testing began January 1999
- MEIT2: S0 truss/Mobile Transporter/Mobile Base System, S1 truss, P1 truss, P3 truss, P4 truss, and a US Lab emulator.
- MEIT3: Japanese Experiment Module, Node 2, and the US Lab emulator
- Completed in 2007
- Node2 IST: Node 2 and US Lab and Node 1 emulators, as part of the ISS Flight Emulator
After the launch of the Destiny, an emulator was built for MEIT testing, since the lab controlled many other modules. Among the items checked were mechanical connections, the ability to flow power and fluids between modules, and the flight software.
Numerous issues were found and rectified from these on the ground tests, many of which could not have been fixed in orbit.