Breaking Ground on the Commercial Crew Access Tower
Posted February 23, 2015 at 4:45pm
Construction has begun at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a Commercial Crew access tower.
The crew access tower, being built by United Launch Alliance at Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41), will be used for launches of Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft atop an Atlas V rocket. The tower will be 200 feet (61 meters) high and include an elevator, as well as means for quick evacuation from the structure in case of an emergency.
The CST-100 is designed to transport up to seven passengers or a mix of crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit destinations such as the International Space Station (ISS) and the Bigelow planned station. Its first flight is slated for 2017.