A Mate-Demate Device (MDD) is a specialized crane designed to lift a

Space Shuttle orbiter The Space Shuttle orbiter is the spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle, a partially reusable orbital spacecraft system that was part of the discontinued Space Shuttle program. Operated from 1977 to 2011 by NASA, the U.S. space agency, thi ...

onto and off the back of a

Shuttle Carrier Aircraft The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) are two extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners that NASA used to transport Space Shuttle orbiters. One (N905NA) is a 747-100 model, while the other (N911NA) is a short range 747-100SR. The SCAs were used ...

. Four Mate-Demate Devices were built.

Armstrong Flight Research Center MDD

The first MDD was located at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, California . Construction of the MDD was completed in late 1976. It was first used during mate-demate operations with the prototype Space Shuttle ''Enterprise'' during the five Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) in 1977. It was then used for post-landing and

mating operations at NASA Armstrong following shuttle orbital missions that landed at Edwards. Fifty-four of the 135 shuttle missions landed at Edwards between STS-1 in 1981 through STS-128 in 2009. All but one of the other flights, which landed at White Sands in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

(

STS-3 STS-3 was NASA's third Space Shuttle mission, and was the third mission for the Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. It launched on March 22, 1982, and landed eight days later on March 30, 1982. The mission, crewed by Jack R. Lousma and C. Gordon Ful ...

), landed at Kennedy Space Center instead. This MDD was used to hoist a Space Shuttle orbiter onto a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the flight back to Florida. The MDD was dismantled in 2014 following the retirement of the Space Shuttle.

Kennedy Space Center MDD

The second MDD was located at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

in Florida . Its primary use was unloading the orbiter after its cross-country flight from Edwards.

Orbiter Lifting Fixture

Vandenberg AFB space shuttle mate-demate device - DF-SC-82-04439

The third MDD was built for the planned Space Shuttle operations at

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida * Vandenberg Sp ...

in California. Upon cancellation of Vandenberg's shuttle program, the Orbiter Lifting Fixture (OLF) was disassembled and moved to USAF Plant 42 in

Palmdale Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south. On Aug ...

, California, where it was used during periodic orbiter refurbishments. This structure was demolished in 2008.

Mobile MDD

On the rare occasions when an orbiter needed to be loaded or unloaded at a location where no MDD was available, a pair of cranes was used instead. Prior to its use in 2012 to exchange ''Discovery'' and ''Enterprise'', the mobile MDD had been stored for over twenty years.

MDDs in USSR

For the Energia-

Buran programme The ''Buran'' program (russian: Буран, , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as the "VKK Space Orbiter program" (russian: ВКК «Воздушно-Космический Корабль», lit=Air and Space Ship), was a Soviet and later R ...

similar structures were built in the USSR, named PKU-50, PU-100 and PUA-100. For the Buran's first flight, they were operated at LII, Baikonur Jubilee airfield, and

Bezymyanka Airport Bezymyanka Airport is an experimental aerodrome in the Aviakor aviation plant in the city of Samara, Russia. It is located east of the Bezymyanka railroad station in the Kirov district of Samara, east of the city center. To the east of the airp ...

. They were capable of loading Buran (0GT cargo) or Energia components (1GT, 2GT and 3GT cargoes) on top of

Myasishchev VM-T The Myasishchev VM-T ''Atlant'' ( Russian: ''Мясищев ВМ-Т «Атлант»'' ( "Atlas"), with the "VM-T" ("BM-T") standing for Vladimir MyasishchevTransport) was a variant of Myasishchev's M-4 ''Molot'' bomber (the "3M"), re-purposed ...

and

Antonov An-225 The Antonov An-225 Mriya ( uk, Антонов Ан-225 Мрія, lit=dream' or 'inspiration; NATO reporting name: Cossack) was a strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed and produced by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was ...

aircraft.

References

{{Space Shuttle Space Shuttle program