How the payload gets in the shuttle

Here's a bunch of pictures to show how our payload gets installed in the shuttle.

Our carriers that carry the payloads: MULE, FSS, ORUC and SLIC from left to right

Here's the pad. On the left is the RSS which is where the payload goes (light gray area).
Our stuff gets out to the pad via the ''can''.

Our payload is installed in the can then rotated to this standing position.
Here's the can leaving for the pad

Can enroute to Pad A

Later that day, the can arrives at the pad. Techs will lift it into the RSS and
prepare the payload for removal.

Here's a pic of the RSS with the can installed (white rectangle in middle of gray structure).

That's the can in the middle of the RSS. The RSS stays open until our
stuff is removed from the can.

One last picture of the RSS with the can.

There is a room in the RSS called the Payload Changeout Room (PCR). We spent A LOT of time there. Above is a picture of the can with its doors open.

A big machine called the PGHM (pronounced piggum) pulls the payload out of the can and then sticks it in the shuttle. The PGHM is the white thing on the right that rolls and grabs our stuff.

When the payload is inside the PCR, the can is lowered and the RSS rotates
onto the shuttle as seen above.

The shuttle's payload bay doors open and the payload is unbagged. The PGHM can now roll forward and install our carriers.

That's all there is to it! We spent a whole week in that PCR watching techs only to get our mission delayed and everything taken out! Yay!

Our carriers are back in the processing facility and this coming week we will do our last tests before returning to Maryland. Then, in a few months, we can come back and do it all again!